End of Year School visit

On Friday I traveled the 144 miles to Bloomington Illinois to meet with freshmen at Bloomington High School. I was invited by Keran Johnson, the school's retiring Library Media Specialist (she's in full countdown mode).  We met last fall when I spoke at the Illinois School Library Media Association in Springfield, and she mentioned how much she wanted an author visit at her school before she left. Over the months we corresponded, trying to find some way to make it happen. At times we almost gave up, but miracles can happen. I guess we have to thank the snow gods, thanks to the need for snow days to make up for closings during the horrific winter, school did NOT end on May 23, the originally scheduled date.  So at the last minute, they were able to fit an author visit in the school year.

While I did not know that my day would begin with the first period class at 7:30 (I am so not a morning person) I got there and got to work.  I actually got there the night before. The drive took about three hours (2 1/2 according to Mapquest, but they did not include the construction slowdown in I55) Keran put me up overnight in her lovely home, and treated me to dinner. Then it was rise and shine and face the students.

The teachers and I

During the day I faced five classes from two English teachers, along with some kids who got passes to attend one of my session.  The groups listened attentively (OK as attentively as kids who really wanted summer vacation to begin already) could.  I talked about writing, and the author's responsibility to craft a story that reaches out and grabs a reader and sucks them in.  And about the readers bill of rights, most especially the right to stop reading any story that bores them.  I admit to valuing that right just as much as I value the right to read anything, the right to reread and the right to skip pages.  I talk to lots of reluctant readers, and I think many of them are or become reluctant because they don't realize they have the right to dislike things other like, that right to read anything they like, and the all-important right to not finish if they are not hooked.

The school put together a poster for me to advertise my school visit. I loved it and just wished I could take it home with me. None of the students, and it was a culturally diverse group, had any issue with the faces on the cover. Kids really don't seem to be put off by that, although publishers and booksellers seem to think only white faces on a cover will sell. Learning that my 2014 release, Minority of One, featured a black gay teen, perked up their interest. And when they asked me about my work in progress and I mentioned the heroine of that book is going to be bi-sexual, several of them wanted to see it NOW! (Sorry, it's just started so they have to wait until at least 2015).   I also shared lunch with some eager future authors, and we discussed the writing process.

Like the group I spoke to a few weeks ago in New Orleans, these kids were interested in multicultural books.  We talked about crafting believable and likeable characters, which is where I start my stories. I read the beginning pages of Pull, my first published YA novel, and of one of my short stories and watched them perk up and tell me to keep going. I left the teachers with a list of book choices the kids could start with in deciding on a summer read for the contest, but reminded each student it was up to them to find the book that best appealed to them. Describe your likes to a librarian. Or maybe pick a book off the shelves at random. Read chapter one. If it doesn't appeal to you, don't try to force yourself to read it. Toss it and find something else. 

All of this was to prepare to set them a challenge. Summer is a time when many kids want to do anything except read. I challenged them to go out and find something, fiction, poetry, an anthology, non-fiction, memoir, even fan fiction or magazines. Something they will feel so strongly about they will want to come back and recommend it to their friends. Because if they do, they will win prizes that include t-shirts. There is no requirement they read a specific book (I was pleased that several of them inquired about my books) or that it be fiction (non-fiction, graphic novels, memoir etc work just fine). This is not a replacement for any summer reading set by their teacher.  But it is incentive for the eager readers, an inducement to reluctant readers, and a hope that some of them will find that maybe reading isn't all that bad after all and share that with their friends.

Over the summer and the beginning of the fall years, these freshmen kids (now sophomores) will enter their recommendations int he school system. They have to add in a blurb about why this story was recommended. And then, they have to get their friends to vote on the best recommendation. The library will collect the votes, and I will send prizes to the top three. I am looking forward to hearing from the teachers and sending out prize packages.

And happy retirement, Keran.
 
I teach online classes for writers, give workshops on reluctant readers and writing, and presentations to schools and libraries. If you are interested in a school, library or conference visit, use my contact page to send me an email

Positive Impact - Students Making a Difference

I spent this morning doing contest judging and school visiting of a different kind.

I judging the Positive Impact contest at Wheeling High School. Winners won't be announced until this evening, and I hope one of the projects I judged will be up there. I can't say who, but I thought that student did an awesome job on a project that could have a major benefit to people.

And that was what this program is all about. In addition to the regular science fair judging, they were asked to discuss how their project could have a positive impact to others, and that is a major aspect in their rating, what is the impact and how acheivable that could be. The goal is to get students ready for a lifetime of looking at their world and seeing areas that could be changed for the better, to have a positive impact on their lives and the lives of others.

Debra Goldfarb, from Intel

Lazaro Lopez, Principal

Spokespeople from the school and industry sponsors addressed the judges and students, stressing the importance of people being willing and able to look around them and see areas where even small changes could be improve life.

Take over the gym!!

 It was a busy day, involving an "occupy Wheeling High School theater, faculty lounge, gym and library" movement. I met new people, went back to my biochemistry roots, and enjoyed good eats. I'm only sorry I couldn't stay for everything. (We retired people have obligations on our time, while people sent by their companies get to call it a day)

Schedule

Good Writing Talks to Your Soul

February can't end soon enough.

The snowstorm hit at the worst time, just as I am preparing to finish teaching my on-line class for authors who want to learn more about writing using the male POV. I have also just begun my duties as the contest coordinator for a writing contest for adult romance writers, and as the final judge in a teen poetry writing contest for a local high school. I have over two hundred entries.

Last, but absolutely not least, I have to head out for a writers conference to give a workshop on the write-like-a-man concept.  Apparently people think I know how to do that.

I am just going to talk briefly about some of the poetry entries. They are good. They are deep. And they are scary.

I don't mean just the few that seem to have a horror basis. I'm talking about some that face issues like the ones I write about. Domestic abuse, child abuse, loss of a love one (one kid spoke of seeing a relative gunned down before their eyes and I want to believe it's all imagination but I fear it is real)  Knowing that the authors are teens makes things all the more vivid. I am reading them all carefully, they will get two or three reads as I try to winnow out the "best."  I see the reality show judges talking about how hard elimination is on them.  I am not eliminating anyone, but it is hard to rank one of these heart-felt poems above another.

The good news is, these are not the kids labeled At-risk, not when they know how to use the power of the pen (or the keyboard) to deal with their pain. In a couple of months I get to go and talk at the school, and maybe meet some of the writers. I will have to tell them how much their words affected me. How I see some of myself in them.

That's what good writing does. It makes you feel like the author knows you, and is sending a direct message to you.  That's what these kids have done to me.

School visit to Oswego East High School

On February 15, I visited the Oswego East High School's Reading Club where I did a book talk with members of the club and other individuals.  There attentive audience watched the Book Trailer for PULL, listened to a reading from the book and learned some inside secrets on how the book came to be. There were questions about my writing process, and I found another future author who, like me, is a "sort of" plotter.

I donated a copy of PULL to the school, and kids took dibs who who would get it first.  Students also receiveds tchotchkes, like PULL wristbands, postcard copies of the cover, the first chapters of PULL and the first chapter of the up-coming sequel, Being God.

Young Chicago Authors - the Area 17 ceremony

May 25, 2011, the culminating ceremony for the Area 17 Chicago Young Authors celebration was held at the Dr. Alexander Bouchet Math & Science Academy, and I was there as a guest of the coordinator, Tina Franklin-Bertrand. 

Author B. A. Binns and Area 17 Youth Authors Coordinator Mrs. Franklin-Bertrand

Many of the winners were stories I judged last Friday.  

Primary, Intermediate and Middle school students arrived early to read each others books and get their well-earned rewards. It was my pleasure to see all the Area 17 students, Honorable Mentions, Excellent and Outstanding, in the audience and marching across the stage.

Students, teachers and supporters of the young authors.

For the Primary grades,
Trip To The Zoo by C. Patterson took home the Excellent prizeThe Return of Super Marcus by M. Frazier the Outstanding prize.
For the Intermediate grades,
A to Z Math Terms by C. Tareef took ExcellentI Wish Horses Were Blue by A. Burks the Outstanding prize.
For Middle School,
Why Me? by K. Cruse took ExcellentTimes Get Hard by L. Anderson won the Outstanding prize.
Times Get Hard, the Middle School Outstanding book, is a group of poems that I had the pleasure to judge.  Having read it already, I was not surprised when it won the top Middle School honor.  In spite of the title, many of the poems contained in the slim volume showed hope.

 After reading this and a number of the other Honorable Mentions, Excellent and  Outstanding stories, I can honestly call all the writers in the room winners, along with their parents, teachers and supporters. Everyone deserved their medals.  As I was able to tell all the students in the room, welcome to the world of writing. I consider all of them my hard-working companions in this endeavor we call writing.

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Young Chicago Authors are GREAT writers

I spent today in Chicago judging at the annual Young Chicago writers competition, that includes poetry, fiction and instructional stories by kids from first grade through 8th. I am amazed at the quality of some of the writing there.  My very first read - a book of poetry of all things (I am not usually a poetry fan) blew me away. I would have paid money for that book, the author was that good, and I hope to see her at Printers Row in June as one of the winners.

The competition is divided into three groups, 1-2 grade, 3-5, and 6-8. Every manuscript was a finalist at the local level, what we read were the best of the best. I joined other authors, educators, and administrators in reading and judging the stories. My hat is off to the students of Chicago, and the great writing they exhibited.  I have judged adult contests where the writing did not pull me in as deeply as some of these entries did. Congratulations to all the students who entered and showed they could write interesting and compelling works.  Not to mention cover and interior artwork.

It was nice to see something good coming from today's youth, and I've already marked my calendar to participate again next year.

Eighth grade school visits

In honor of National Library Week I did a bunch of school and library visits last week.  I'm finding these visits a blast, and loving the witty repartee with the students.  At least I was, until I walked into an 8th grade class. These kids are different. They stare at you. Even the second graders I visited had questions and even gave me advice, and the high school students were all over me.

8th graders stare. And have no interest. And left me feeling lost.

I walked out of that school feeling like I had hit rock bottom, a failure, never connected with even one of the dozens of students in the room.

Except ... today I got an email.  They want me back next year.

SIGH.

A visit to the Chicago Public Schools

I visited with Langston Hughes Elementary school on Chicago's south side yesterday. I spent the d ay there, speaking with 2nd, 4th, 5th and 8th grade classes. Talk about the need to be versatile! What works for one group leaves the other yawning, so I had to be able to change on a dime as I kept watch over my audience. But by the end they were all wanting more, with the 8th graders late for their own lunch periods because they kept asking me questions instead of heading for the door, and the 2nd graders reluctant to follow their parents home because they kept wanting to give me advice.

Every group had different questions. Many of the students are interested in careers in art and writing, so I received tons of questions on both subjects. In every class except the 2nd graders the girls did most of the questioning. Of course, with the second graders they were mostly telling me what to do, so maybe that's why the boys were so eager to speak.  The value of the day for me was in meeting with these kids and connecting with their enthusiasm, even the teachers seemed astonished by how interested they were in hearing the good, the bad and the ugly about writing as a career.  I gave out books and PULL bracelets, and a promise that any question they sent me would be answered. I hope I helped a few be inspired in creativity and belief in their capabilities, whether as authors, artists or any other endeavor they want to pursue.  And I will be happy to return to their school, or any other Chicago Public School if I am issued an invitation.