Inspired by Teaching and a Giveaway

I've never done a giveaway on this site, and this one is sort of impromptu.  You see, today I was inspired by what happened in the classroom.  Today I taught fourth grade, which is a grade that I teach frequently, and I familiar with all of the curriculum.  The students I was working with had a test on the story Tomas and the Library Lady, and what they didn't realize was that the book is actually based on a true story.  It is this an almost magical tale about the son of a migrant farm worker and how a librarian inspires a deep love of books.  Tomas, the boy in the story, is a real person who ended his life as a chancellor of UC Riverside.  They even named the library after him!

I happen to be a huge fan of reading.  I think it was my mom who got me interested because she was reading all of the time.  We would even read books together.  I remember sitting on the kitchen floor, while she did the dishes, and reading The BFG by Roald Dahl to her.  I think everyone should read and really to learn to love it, which is why find this story so inspiring.  After the test, the kids who had finished were reading books and one of the students, who is not a big reader, showed me his book and said, "Wow, I'm really into this book.  I'm kind of like of Tomas!"  And that's when I knew that one of you needs to own this book, and I'm going to give it to you.

To win a copy of the book Tomas and the Library Lady, by Pat Mora, you just have to leave a comment stating what your favorite children's book is and why.  This is not a sponsored post!  I don't know Pat Mora, or the publisher, I just like this book.  This contest ends at 5pm Pacific Standard time and the winner will be chosen randomly and announced Monday.  Good luck!

I hope that you love this book as much as I do, and use it to inspire an avid reader.  Have a great weekend!

The giveaway is officially closed.  I will announce which of you has won the book tomorrow.

The winner is Jamie with comment #1.  I entered all the comments into a random number generator and that's what came out.  Just send me an email with your address and I will send the book your way.

Orange County Children's Book Festival

This weekend I attended the Orange County Children's Book Festival, sponsored by OC Family Magazine, with my cousin and the kids.  As an avid children's book reader, and the owner of over a hundred children's books myself, I was over the moon at the opportunity to meet authors and illustrators!  This kind of event is seriously my crack!  School book fairs give me goosebumps, book signings excite me so much that I can't sleep the night before, and events like this make my mouth water.  I was also pretty psyched to hang out with my niece and nephew.

The event was filled with great booths and fun things for kids to do.  Breleigh was in craft heaven!  She also takes after me, and was way  more excited to read the books.  In fact, her favorite Disney princess is Bell, because she reads books!  You have to love that!

We stopped at the PBS booth for some coloring and a game of memory.

We also stopped by the storytelling booth for a great story, and then headed to the main stage for entertainment.  My favorite group was the Kids Imagine Nation.  It sounded like they sing all original music, and it's all music geared towards kids.  They were great at getting the kids up and moving!  Super fun!

What we were REALLY there for, other than the high Bre and I get around books, was the illustrator of Fancy Nancy.  If you don't know those books, you need to!  They are adorable, and the illustrations really are amazing.  The illustrator is Robin Preiss Glasser and she was phenomenal!  She showed the kids her inspiration for Nancy, and a couple of other characters, and showed the children how she illustrates her characters.  I loved that she told them she draws them hundreds of times, doing the same exact thing, and then cuts our her favorite pieces of each drawing and tapes them together.  That just goes to show you that practice makes perfect!  She also taught all of the kids that in order to be fancy you must learn to walk with grace and good posture, and that the best way to practice it was by wearing a banana on your head.  It was adorable!  She stayed afterwards for pictures and a book signing, and was very sweet to a very tired Bre, signing her book Fancy Breleigh (which is what she sometimes calls herself).  

As a reward for sitting through the presentation by Robin Preiss Glasser, we headed for the bounce house.  Bouncing can solve many problems, the main one being a grouchy mood!  I highly recommend a good bounce whenever you feeling are down.  I wish I had a before and after to share with you, but just look at the joy in this little girl's face and I am sure that you too will understand the therapeutic effects of bouncing.

Breleigh got to dance, and Maddon got to meet a dog who also happened to be giving out balloons.  He absolutely did not want to walk away.  I so wish you could see his face, because he is so excited!

We ended our day listening to Molly Shannon talk about her new book Tilly the Trickster.  She was absolutely sweet, and funny!  But funny in a parent kind of way, and not in an SNL way.  She told a story about her and her daughter trying to trick her son by having Molly Shannon dress strangely and act like she was the new babysitter. (Side note: I would TOTALLY go back into babysitting for that fun family!) Her son believed the trick, but in the middle of the charade the actual baby sitter walked up and Molly Shannon had to take off her disguise and try to explain why she was dressed that way and acting strangely.  Such a funny mom story!  I don't have any pictures of Molly Shanon.  Actually, I do but she is making such funny faces in all of them that I decided to leave them out.  

Over all, it was a truly amazing day!  I was surrounded by books, authors, illustrators, and the cutest sweetest kids ever!  I would highly recommend the event next year!  I would also highly recommend grabbing the closest baby and having a dance party!  Well, maybe ask permission first, but you should all give it a shot because it is truly amazing to have a baby giggle while you dance together to oldies.

Happy Tuesday!