I am so grateful to the wonderful Doss community for taking care of each other! I have delivered many books to unsuspecting readers over the past few days and we're not done yet!
Today, author John David Anderson spoke to third, fourth, and fifth graders. His books have positive messages of kindness and love. We have signed copies of Ms. Bixby's Last Day, Posted, and Granted at the book fair!
Anderson talked about what inspires him and shared that most of his inspiration comes from other books, stories, and television shows. He explained that authors often fall in love with stories and tell other versions of them. He drew amazing parallels between Star Wars and Harry Potter--I will never look at either the same way again! Ask your Doss owl about this...
He also told students to read what excites them and to find a passion and fall in love with it. He connected this idea to writing about what you know or about how you feel, and to exercise your imagination. Anderson also suggested that kids ask the questions, "What if?", "How come?", and "Why?" and created a few wild story starters using this process.
He went on to quote author Rick Riordan, "Writing is like a sport. If you don't practice, you don't get any better." Anderson suggested kids sharpen their tools and fill up their box with alliteration, foreshadowing, flashback, character evolution, theme, dialogue tags, and narrative arc.
He talked about persistence and perseverance. He made 8,374 changes between the third and fourth versions of Granted!
Most importantly, Anderson reminded us all of the power that our words have and how our words can make someone's day or ruin it. He likened words to chainsaws and warned of their danger. He asked the students to raise their hands if they'd ever been bullied... and a staggering number of hands went up. His message is timely on a week when random acts of kindness are happening all around me. I am so fortunate to be a part of this amazing community! Many thanks!!! xoxo, Mrs. Lang
