Yesterday I had an excellent visit at All Saints Episcopal School in Phoenix, Arizona. I gave three presentations in the Parish Hall to students in kindergarten through sixth grade as well as doing a visit to the children in the pre-kindergarten classroom. I was pleased with the good response to my program by both students and teachers. As always, the last part of my presentation was the time where the students could ask questions. I was impressed by the variety of questions. One of my favorites was “Did you stay awake at night to see the activity in the different habitats?” My answer: In some cases, yes. Another question was, “Why did you organize the habitat books with each page at a three-hour interval?” My answer: Because that was what worked best for the length of the book. And another question: “Why do you illustrate your books with artistic pictures instead of photographs?” My answer: For one thing, because it is hard to take pictures of animals that are active at night! There were lots of other good questions as well, but these questions showed me that the students had looked carefully at my new books in the Caroline Arnold’s Habitats series.
I thank Librarian Jenny Oleksak for inviting me to All Saints and for doing such a good job of preparing the students for my visit and managing the book sale. I also thank the parents for their generous support and for the delicious morning coffee and lunch. I think it was a very successful day!
