Huzzah! The day has arrived. Mac Barnett, author extraordinaire, is at Thomas today to talk to students about his life as an author. Mac is the author of many picture books including Guess Again, Chloe and the Lion, and Caldecott Award winning Extra Yarn. He also writes the Brixton Brothers series among other chapter books.
When I first learned that Mac Barnett was coming, I was super excited. My two year old daughter absolutely adores his books. I absolutely adore reading them to her. During the course of a typical day, I sometimes read 40 books to her. I tire of some, but Mac's books are so fun that I can read them over and over.
Mac's presentations to students have been incredibly engaging and entertaining. He has a great energy that the kids here absolutely gravitate toward. If you ever get a chance to see him at a book signing or school event, I highly recommend it. If you haven't ever read any of his books, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? I mean, I highly encourage you to check them out.
Bonus compliment time. Mac told me that the artwork hanging in the halls here is some of the best he has seen during any of his school visits. Score!
I love Mac Barnett. How can I get him to come to our school?
ReplyDeleteI just left a comment about how I can get Mac to our school. I am pleased to see that he was excellent. We just had Nathan Hale at our school and would like someone next year just as good!
ReplyDeleteMac was absolutely awesome. I think it's really cool to be able to bring in such influential authors to the schools.
ReplyDeleteHere's what I know about how we got Mac to come. Our librarian organized it all, so I'm not totally sure on all of the details. She is out on maternity leave right now, so I wasn't able to ask her specifically. Mac lives in California and my school is in Ohio. Four elementary schools in my district went together to bring him here. He did one day at each school. Working together with other schools helped defray the costs for travel and hotel. I know it wasn't at all cheap to bring him in, but the librarian here raises money through book fairs, etc. to be able to bring in authors/illustrators. I believe our PTO also helped.
I do know that they started the booking process last fall in order to have him out recently. I assume they went through his website/agent in order to get him. I know he does quite a few school visits as well as book publicity tours throughout the year. Let me know if you have any more specific questions. I can try to find out more details if you can't find answers otherwise.