School Visits in Winston-Salem, NC

Bookmarks, Winston-Salem, NC

Last Wednesday I had two very successful school visits in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, sponsored by Bookmarks, a local nonprofit literary organization.

With library Alexandra Randall at St. Leo's

The first visit was at St. Leo’s Catholic School where I spoke to first, second and third graders in the school library. Librarian Alexandra Randall did a great job getting everything ready, setting up the SmartBoard for my powerpoint slides and finding two of my older books in the library collection. I was pleased with the enthusiasm of the students and the good questions at the end. My favorite question was: What kind of bird are you? This is was after I had talked about birds and  measured the students’ wingspans. Most of them were red-tailed hawks. I have the wingspan of an osprey.

With the upper school librarian and principal Andrew Lester-Niles at the Downtown School

The second visit was at the Downtown School, a magnet school in the heart of the downtown where I spoke to a very lively group of kindergarten and first graders. We went on a lion hunt, sang Wiggle and Waggle and did a number of other activities. I thank principal Andrew Lester-Niles for arranging the visit.

With Bookmarks volunteer Kathy Pounds

At both schools I was assisted by Bookmarks volunteer, Kathy Pounds, who brought copies of my books for signing and took photographs. At the end of my visit she took me to the Bookmarks store in its brand new location where I had the chance to meet other volunteers and learn more about the organization, which sponsors a variety of literary events in the community.