pass it on

A month ago I had three boys who finished a book by Peg Kehret. They truly loved reading Stolen Children and could hardly wait to discuss the story and their thinking. I too enjoyed watching their thinking grow as each chapter passed. (It is an amazing feeling to watch excitement in readers grow)
After the boys evaluated the book we started to talk about the author. We passed around ideas of how she came up with her idea for the story, what inspires her to write, what she looks like, etc.
One of the boys mentioned that it would be great to contact her. Well I told them....WHY NOT???
So, off we went and emailed Peg Kehret. The boys took their time and wrote wonderful notes to their favorite author, Peg Kehret.
A day or two passed and the boys asked if not once, a dozen times if I thought they would ever hear from Peg. One boy even said to the other, "Why would a famous author talk to us?"
I began to worry- you always take a chance when contacting an author, I wanted to badly for them to hear from her too.
Last week, I came to school early in the morning and started my daily procedures. Email was up and immediatly my eyes were wide open and my heart started to jump!!! YIPPPEEE... their favorite author, PEG KEHRET, responded. I could hardly wait to see the boys- actually I hunted them down in the morning and brought them to the room early. I had them open the message and we read it together. What a wonderful message she sent us.
I have never seen three boys filled with pride and excitement. They shared their news with the class, the principal, and the other class across from us who also love Peg's writing.
What a catalyst for something wonderful.... our class started to think about authors they love and admired- most importantly why. What did the author do to pull them into the book? How did they feel when they read these books? What were they learning about themselves as readers when they read?
Well.... this has been the start of something wonderful. Kids are looking up authors, studying their work, asking questions, emailing them too! I am proud that what started as a small conversation ended up being a great learning moment.
Thank you Peg Kehret, Tony Abbott, and P.W. Cantanese for giving my students such joy in reading. You have made many of my treasures so very happy.