Friday, February 27, 2009

School Magic

Wednesday afternoon I went shopping with my daughter in law, so I was not home when Brandi got home from school. As we stood in the check out line at Ikea, the strains of Bolero came from my purse, so I know it was the house before I ever pulled my phone out.

Me: Hello

Brandi: (almost breathlessly) Mom! You'll never, ever guess who is coming to my school tomorrow! Scott Savage is coming, Mom! To my school.

I had already taken Thursday off from work, so I would be free at the time of the author assembly. I arrived a few minutes before the students entered the auditorium. I have only met Scott on one other occasion, and I hosted a stop on his blog tour this past summer. I was impressed when Scott came over to me and knew who I was. We chatted a bit, as he and his lovely wife, Jennifer, set up for the assembly. Then the kids came in and the fun began.

After the assistant principal introduced Scott to the school, he took the microphone. He thanked the administration for letting him be there, then he said he needed to give a shout out to a friend of his. He had Brandi stand up (she sat down before I could get a picture, but she was surprised). He mentioned that Brandi's mother had reviewed his book before it even came out to bookstores. Scott just elevated my daughter to small celebrity status at school. Thank you Scott.

Then Scott started his presentation. And what a fun presentation it was. There was magic, and hot dog heroes, purple men, marshmallow monsters, man eating sharks, dancing in red tutus and an amazing story created by the students. And the students loved every minute of it.
(I was going to link to the story that the students created, but for some reason I can't get the page to load this morning. I wil try again when I get home from work. You can go here, go to forums, then schools I've visited and then Grovecrest to find the story the students made up with Scott.)

There was the opportunity to purchase books and have Scott sign them. Brandi purchased one because we still only had just the ARC and the book has cool pictures and maps that the ARC doesn't. Scott was so good with the students, talking with them and finding out about them as he signed their books.

Thank you, Scott, for a wonderful assembly.

Scott will be at the Pleasant Grove Library tonight. I think he said at 6 pm. If you have a chance, come out and see him and visit with him. There will be Farworld posters for everyone, as well as an opportunity to purchase a book (at a discount I might add).

Now for some pics from the assembly. (Jess didn't get a chance to edit them for me, so they are a little dark, sorry)




Scott talking to Jennifer as they are setting up

Brandi, enraptured with the presentation

Having students help with a magic trick


Scott asking the students a question



Creating the story with the students



Enthusiastic students helping create the story


This is where the red tutu came in. Scott was dancing ballet to help tell the story the kids were creating. It was a big hit.


Wrapping up the assembly


Scott Savage and Brandi
She really was more thrilled than she looks. She didn't stop talking about it all evening.


Indeed.

add to kirtsy

5 comments:

Jeri said...

as you may remember from a post i did a while back, Scott came to my son's school a while back too. I wasn't at the assembly (didn't even know it was happening) but he must have had the same amazing effect; because we found ourselves at the local library that night, buying a book and Aaron talked about it for days and we have been reading the book together - he absolutely loves it!

Anonymous said...

I feel left out because I don't know who Scott is. :(

Sandra said...

Noelle,
You may know him as Jeff Savage, writer of the Shandra Covington series.

Ashli Barnes said...

I have no idea who he is either, but (and this is the teacher coming out in me) it absolutely thrills me that they were all so excited about it! Something like this is SOO much better than worksheets!

Karlene said...

Wish I'd known ahead of time and could have been to one of those events. If you ever hear of James Dashner coming around, let me know. Otherwise I'll have to haul a passle of books to the LDStorymakers Writers Conference to get them all signed.