“What if?”

Christopher Denise read his book Knight Owl to first grade this morning.
 

It was a delight to have the author and illustrator take them through his own creation page-by-page.
 

Then, he rewound and took them through each step in his creative process.
 

He shared his rough drafts - his “sloppy copies."
 

He showed them his story map.
 

He explained why even fairy tales require some research.
 

He talked about decisions in setting.
 

He walked them through his decisions about voice and language.
 

All the while, he was explicit about his influences.
 

Some might have been obvious.
 

Others weren’t.
 

Every step of the way, he emphasized the importance of imagination and inspiration.
 

If he hadn’t kept asking “what if?”, he explained, he never would have had a story he wanted to tell.

2022 Book Fair was busy

The story above was just one of dozens of special events happening around Gordon's 2022 Book Fair. 

Here are a few more:

Thursday author Karina Yan Glaser with second and third grade

Wednesday celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the Joukowsky Family Library
Wednesday authors and publishers Cheryl and Wade Hudson with second grade
Wednesday author and illustrator Danielle Greendeer with third grade

Tuesday author and illustrator Deborah Freedman with Preschool, Young Kindergarten, Kindergarten and first grade
Tuesday author Anika Aldamuy Denise with first, second and fourth grade

Last week author Supriya Kelkar with second and third grade

Note! Guests met with many different grades in a number of workshops. The visits documented above were simply the ones Mr. Griffin happened to catch.