Hunger Games Night

The time has come.....

Hunger Games

Food

Chat

This Thursday @ my house.

7 p.m.

Come hungry!

*Please give me a heads up on here if you are planning on coming so I can plan well.
Thanks!

I've got Heidi's copy of 'The Hunger Games'. I'm finished so if anyone needs a copy to read, let me know. I really enjoyed the story so I'm looking forward to next meeting.

Richard Peck, A Long Way From Retiring

Here's me as a seventh grader with Richard Peck at a young writers' workshop at Starved Rock State Park in Illinois. I remember being SO excited to meet a real author.

I slipped the old photo into my book, Ghosts I Have Been, as a surprise for him when he opened it to sign it again, 20 years later. He knew what young writers' workshop I was talking about and said, "Yeah, I can still remember the lodge I stayed in." Pretty good for all the places he's been and for being 76 years old. I was just as excited to talk with a real author the second time around, and introduce him to my daughter.

I found his speech just as entertaining as his books, funny and full of wisdom.

"Your library card is your ticket out of town, and it was mine." I'm from a small town in IL like him, and moved to the "big city" in 8th grade. "Anyone who thinks a small town is friendly lives in a big city."

He addressed the change he's observed in public education. "When I was a student, parents feared the call from the school. Now, the school fears the call from the parents. You can teach children or fear their parents, but you can't do both."

As an English teacher of high school school seniors, he learned that "You have to be dead to be read." As a junior high teacher, he got lots of ideas from his students, and is led by his readers as to what he writes.

"3/4 Dead," inspired by a true story and coming out this fall, will be quite different from the 39 books he's written so far. He said he didn't want to deal with this story, but couldn't get the girl's voice out of his head who was on the other line with her friend when she died behind the wheel on her cell phone, along with their 2 other girlfriends in the car.

I once heard an educator say that reading books for older children provides what dramatic play does for younger ones in learning empathy, defining roles, and figuring out the world. I found it very interesting that he said the elders in his books are the young readers' introductions to the bewildering world of adults.

Although he's past a typical retirement age, Richard Peck doesn't plan on trimming his travel itinerary or unplugging his electric typewriter anytime soon. "I can't afford to stay home very long. I'm getting older every minute." Next week, he's off to London, where he visits about four times a year from his NY hometown.

Some of his advice for writers: "The story is always about the reader, never about the writer...Beatrix Potter never was a rabbit. J.K. Rawlings never attended Hogwarts."

"Always write your dialogue standing up. It improves the pace."

When I asked Robyn what she'd say as a report about his speech to her 3rd grade class, she quoted him as saying, "Only readers have futures."

March Book Club!

Last night book club was held at the library.  We read two books this month, A Long Way to Chicago and A Year Down Yonder. Then last night we were lucky enough to hear from the Newbery Award-winning author Richard Peck.  


We joined about 300 others to listen to him talk about why he is a writer and where some of his characters came from.  He was much funnier than I anticipated and he didn't shy away from being pretty critical about the state of public education.  Here are a few of my favorite quotes and one from Kristie.  Add your favorites in the comments section -- Christie I am sure you have several too.


"Most of who we are is determined in the five fleeting years of life before we ever see schools,"  


"Schools don't build foundations, schools build upon foundations. And when schools fail, families fail first."


"Story was the first school"


"Families should read together because fiction is family"


"I am never the boy in the book, because our readers aren't looking for us authors in our pages," he said. "They're looking for themselves."


"You always learn the most from the experiences you would have avoided if you could"


From Krsitie:

"I read because one life isn't enough, and in the page of a book I can be anybody;

I read because the words that build the story become mine, to build my life;

I read not for happy endings but for new beginnings; I'm just beginning myself, and I wouldn't mind a map;

I read because I have friends who don't, and young though they are, they're beginning to run out of material;

I read because every journey begins at the library, and it's time for me to start packing;

I read because one of these days I'm going to get out of this town, and I'm going to go everywhere and meet everybody, and I want to be ready."

I forgot my camera but Shannon took some photos with her phone & I'll post then soon.

After the library a few of us headed over to Shauna's house for some REALLY good food **recipes please!!**  and even better conversation (complete with beauty tips and labor & delivery stories).  I for one had a great time.  

See you next month!

Let's go see us some Richard Peck!

Just in case anyone hasn't been getting the emails, we're going to see Richard Peck tomorrow night at the Provo Library. We'll meet in the line outside the ballroom doors at 5:30. We have enough tickets for all who are able and willing to come.

Afterwards, we are going over to Shauna's house for some treats and appetizers or whatever else you might want to bring to share. Elsa has a fever of 103.5, so I didn't think anyone wanted to come to my house and get exposed, and Shauna was kind enough to agree to have people over there.

Thank you, Shauna! And, we'll see you all tomorrow night.