Shiver Me, Shipwreck!

(artwork by Annabelle 2nd grade)

I spent part of this morning visiting an 2nd grade classroom at a local elementary school and reading Pirate School: Shiver Me, Shipwreck. I don't do a lot of school visits, but I try and visit at least one a year. It came down to the wire this year, but I made it...and as always it was a lot of fun.

I was feeling generous today and even wore my pirate hat for the reading. Kids like that kind of stuff. They find it funny. That's what makes kids awesome. Another thing that makes kids awesome is the questions they ask. Sometimes they aren't even questions. Sometimes they just raise their hands to tell you random facts about themselves. Those are my favorite questions.

I signed books for all the kids too. Some gave me drawings. Others brought up stories they had written that they wanted me to read. One was about a trip to Six Flags that ended when the 'character' went on the Twister ride and 'pukt' on her mom. "It was a fun day." (probably not so much for the mom). Another very serious girl, who wanted to a writer and whose classmates confirmed she was always writing stories, let me read an extremely well-written three page story. Isn't funny how you pretty much spot a writer even as a child.

Stay tuned tomorrow for more Pirate School excitement and a chance to win two signed copies.

How the Giraffe Got His Spots

On this Story Time Tuesday, I share with you a story I wrote way back in second grade. Last year, I did a school visit at my elementary school and my amazing second grade teacher presented me with this surprise which she had held onto for all of those years. As far as I'm aware, the earliest surviving story I ever wrote.

The Giraffe

There was a giraffe that everyone laughed at because he didn't have spots and a long neck. Then he went to the jungle. Then he felt a hand and WAMO he was gone. And when he came out he had brown spots and a long neck. The man said, "All you needed was a fire."

Besides the obvious masterpiece that this is, I found the WAMO bit especially interesting. It's a device I still use often in writing chapter books. Both Pirate School and CatKid are filled with CRASHes and BLAMs. It's funny how our sense of storytelling develops at such an early age. I read this to the kids during the visit. They reacted with slightly less enthiusiam than when my reading of CatKid.