Window decorated:

Signs created:

And hung:

Gift bag assembled. (Thank you Niki (a.k.a. Daydream Reader)):

Student book orders procured:

Let’s do this.

Yesterday author/illustrator Ruth McNally Barshaw visited our school. It was a good day.

Way back in aught eight, I read, loved, and reviewed Ellie McDoodle: Have Pen Will Travel (I forgot how nuts that review was – here’s to looking back!). Fast forward eight years, and there she was at our school.

She got right down to business, drawing with students:

She hit on all kinds of stuff. She talked about her childhood, and how a caring art teacher changed her life by giving her a journal. She talked about her writing/drawing process, and how it’s all about revision. She showed some works in progress, and some ideas for kids to run with on their own.

She also enlisted the crowd to help create a story that she illustrated (at amazing speeds).

She even played us an Irish folk song on her oversized ECHO harmonica:

(Why did I not get a video of this?!?!)

It was a wonderful day – thank you Ruth McNally Barshaw for stopping by.