Miss Seitner’s PreK3 Classes Write a Book!

I was invited to speak to my pal Miss Seitner’s PreK3 classes last Friday via Zoom. They are learning about books–that picture books have an illustrator and an author, that sometimes that’s the SAME person. They are learning that a picture book doesn’t have an elf drawing a picture on every page of their books, but that there is a printing process that happens that allows multiple copies of the same book to be in homes and libraries and bookstores.

I showed them actual illustrations from Crow Made a Friend, and then we looked for those illustrations printed in the book:

We also showed them a book (my favorite–that hammer page still makes me laugh–Cowboy and Octopus, written by Jon Scieska and illustrated by Lane Smith) that had an author and an illustrator who were two different people. To clarify the author-illustrator process a little, we played a game where the students were the authors, and I was the illustrator of our book. Our collaboration. Our Hero is a dog-cheetah-cat hybrid who lives in a dark forest, and he is lonely…In the dark forest (I was told enthusiastically), there was a path. When I asked, “Does Mister Doggo go down the path to look for a friend?” they all said NOOOO!!! (like I was CRAZY). But he did see a lake…and there was an alligator…and it went on from there. We even talked about compromise, and what that means when artists are collaborating. 🙂

You’ll have to wait for another installment to find out what happens…