catching up with some school visits: One Book, One Read in TX!

Another great visit I don't want to forget was in Houston, TX, where two schools chose Where the Mountain Meets the Moon as their One Book, One School Read title.  

Can I tell you how much I LOVE when schools do this? It's my absolute favorite thing when a whole school reads my book. I admit I get a bit disheartened when Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is pigeon-holed as "ethnic," but when it's used for programs such as these my faith is restored.  

Because, I truly believe that my books are for everyone and anyone can enjoy them, not just for those that look like me. And when my book is chosen for a program such as this, I get to to see and really know that all the kinds of students--boys and girls of ALL races--- enjoy my book and it's wonderful. It's the difference between believing and knowing. 

And these schools were awesome!  First there was the welcome:

isn't that so sweet?

One school had t-shirts of the book made:

I'm holding a special origami book that these students made me, all decorated with compliments about the book!

And then there were the projects:

 

Each student made their family connected together by a red string!

bulletin boards that showed everyone reading the book and where they read it!

And students re-illustrated the cover of the book (I'm only showing two that I picked randomly--there were so many!):

 

 

And because it was a school-wide read, the school made discussion questions to help the students follow along (by the way, I'm planning to have a copy of their discussion guides available online at my website in the future, in case other schools would like it as a resource).  I have to admit, I loved seeing how the youngest grades answer!

I think this is a first grader's! All the answers are quite correct! 

I am told this is a kindergartner's! I am impressed!

It was such an honor for Where the Mountain Meets the Moon to be chosen for these schools' One Book, One School Read programs! Thank you so much, Harvard and Travis Elementary!

one book, one me!

I'm in the middle of my school visit and event schedule. I've had a string of lovely ones that I've been meaning to post about, but I wanted to make sure I wrote about this one before too much time passed...

Because I was super honored that Where the Mountain Meets the Moon was chosen for the One Book, One Rosemount program! Everyone in Rosemount, MN was encouraged to read the book and then meet yours truly:

Not only did the program distribute hundreds of free copies, the library arranged a series of programs  in coordination with the book.

I meant to get a photo of the inside of that awesome brochure that listed all the programs but I forgot!

Schools also got in on the action with brush painting:

dragon making:

 

and researching and creating their own Chinese folktale books:

these are SO awesome!!!

I was lucky to be able to visit some schools during my stay in Rosemount, where the students had some head-scratching questions for me: 

that's a stumper!

yes, and isn't that ironic?

But I distracted them by introducing Starry River of the Sky to them:

And teaching them how to draw  a tiger:

It was great fun!

Me, the moon, and the lovely director of the program Frances Veit!

Thanks so much, Rosemount!!!