Today we had an author visit by the name of Matthew McElligott. Our librarian suggested we read some books before he arrives so that our kids would be familiar with his work before he talked to them. I read aloud Backbeard: Pirate for Hire and The Spooky Book. While I was reading these books aloud, I didn't think much of them...they weren't all that special. The kids enjoyed the ridiculous humor in them and that was good...isn't a book a good place to have some ridiculous humor?
Today during his visit, he really showed kids how much perseverance it takes to be an author. He talked about how many times he rereads his books, edits and revises before he can ever think about sending it off to the publisher. (Which was good because our kids think it's perfect after their first rough draft.) He talked about how many times the publisher might ask him to change things and then he has to rewrite again. I hope the kids picked up on the message that even though he's a professional writer, it's rarely perfect, even after 15 revision sessions.
One thing that truly interested me during the visit was his use of technology. I apparently did not notice while reading his books the real-ness of the illustrations. It turns out that he takes pictures of textures in his life and then uses Photo Shop to import them into his sketches. He demonstrated how he did this today with 3 kids from the audience. He took pictures of their shirts and then imported them as tablecloths, jackets, and a dress for a grandma. It was probably one of the coolest things I've ever seen. His website gives a more detailed description of how he actually goes about this...it's worth checking out.
Overall, I enjoyed his visit. Parts of it were tedious and a bit boring, but I think the kids really did enjoy what he had to say.
http://matthewmcelligott.com/wordpress/?cat=15
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