The librarians, students, teachers, parents, and administrators of Pittsford, NY, wowed me with their enthusiasm for learning, for reading, and for writing. I spent a week visiting five elementary schools and loved spending time there.

Students at all the schools had creative ideas, great questions, and lots of enthusiasm.

I so enjoyed talking with teachers and gobbling up Kathy Kloc’s beautiful cookies. I loved seeing Mrs. Heinrich’s class journal, inspired by my book Please Write in this Book, and I even got to write in it. I signed a lot of books and received gifts of dark chocolate and my favorite pens!!!!

Librarians Ann Haefele, Betsy Blessington, Tami Holihan, Geri McMahon, Mary Ann Clark, Karen Wilson, and all the paras as well as the librarians on leave to have babies did a great job of preparing students.

I loved working with the two classes on brainstorming, crafting, and writing the mysteries.

Teacher Monica Obstgarten created this visual for the outline we came up with for our stories. Students used this outline to dream up terrific, suspenseful (and often funny) stories. Try using the outline to write your own mystery.

So don’t despair if you’re stuck! It’s all part of imagination’s “wicked sense of irony.”

In my skype workshop on creating character, I asked students to choose a character (a person, an animal, or an object) to become. After a series of exercises, the students then had to write a monologue from the character’s point of view.  Fifth grader David Scheele wrote this amazing monologue. See if you can guess what he is…

A Character Monologue

By:

David Scheele

It has been sixty seven years since I was first stuffed into this horrid machine.  Nobody has ever inserted a quarter to free us in a long, long time.  Stuck here with my companions in the abandon candy shop ever since the year of 1945. We’re old now. It’s just me, Bob, Joe, Timmy, Frank, and Steve.  We’re all crusty.  I’m sure my grape flavor is dull by now, and I probably won’t chew nicely being all hard and crusty.  It would be my dream for someone to come along and break the silence with quarters with jingling quarters in their pockets to free us all!

And right then and there, right in the middle of my daydreaming is when I hear it.  Footsteps…and then I see a boy walk in, opening the door to the light, but with only one quarter in his hand.  It will finally be my turn! I was next in line for freedom! He came up to us, silently putting his quarter in the slot, and cranking the knob to our glass ball that sat on top of us.  I saw the opening and rolled right into it.  I have escaped from the glass dome! I begin to roll down the metal slope tunnel…and waited.  He opened the cover and I was there, just sitting there.  Then he picked me up, but only to find the crustiness and mold on me. So, he threw me onto the ground, stomped on me, and I cracked. I busted into a million pieces…and then it struck me! I was too old. Never to be chewed. Not ever to be blown into a bubble.

The End

Reading Night at Patuxent Middle School started off great! Thoughtful organizers reserved me a parking spot! Enjoyed meeting parents, middle schoolers, and staff. Thanks to Susan Gum, reading specialist, for making it all happen.

The readers, writers, and artists at Eldersburg Elementary School knocked my socks off. The energy and enthusiasm at this school was fantastic! Thanks to media specialist Lorraine Markosky and all the staff, parents, and students.

And thanks also to the nearby A Likely Story bookstore in Sykesville, MD for coordinating the booksale. http://www.sykesvillebooks.com/