Illustrator and Author Loren Long Visits Thomas!

Last week, Thomas Elementary was lucky enough to host author and illustrator Loren Long! Long lives in Cincinnati and came up to Columbus for three days to visit schools in the district. In my time as a teacher, I have seen many people and organizations come in to the school to give presentations and performances for the students here. Loren Long was the best I have seen so far.

The kids were totally captivated while watching Loren draw Otis the tractor.

If you don't know of Loren Long, you should! He started out in the book world as an illustrator. He and I had a good conversation during lunch and it turns out that we know several of the same people in the illustration world. I graduated from CCAD as an illustration major back in 2004. Long's work includes illustrating children's books written by Angela Johnson, Madonna, and President Obama. You may have heard of them before! He has also written and illustrated several books, with the Otis series being the most well known.

Loren did an amazing job with the students here and kept them extremely interested and entertained. It was refreshing to hear him talking about why people should draw lightly when they are making artwork. I've only said it thousands of times, but having a real illustrator tell the kids can't hurt!