Author visit from Henry Cole

Today we had an author visit from Henry Cole.  Henry Cole is an amazing illustrator as well as a terrific author-he's written and illustrated over 100 books!  We got ready for his visit by reading some of his picture books like these.

This one is a  wordless picture book about the Underground Railroad.  This is one of my favorites to show kids that picture books are awesome.  Even for really big kids.  

Or this one about Caroline who moves to a new neighborhood and is inspired to create a wildlife sanctuary in her yard.  My students loved this one!

This one made us think about Henry as a researcher and writer, just like us!  

My little kids loved this one that was really about point of view.  We did a little project where we traced our hands-their little ones and my big one.  They thought that was hilarious!

My bigger kids can't wait to start reading this brand new one by Henry!

And the bigger kids LOVED hearing the story of how Henry was inspired to write this story that sounds like it's about a mouse, but it's really a story about the famous artist, Audubon, who was a big inspiration to Henry.

Henry gave three amazing presentations so ALL of our students got to see and hear about what it takes to be a really great writer and illustrator.   He showed us how he uses music to help him set the mood for his drawings as well as some of his inspirations for his writing and drawing.  It was terrific to hear about how much he practices and revises to get things EXACTLY right.  The kids LOVED hearing him and were inspired to read and write, just like him.

A BIG, GIGANTIC THANK YOU to the Spady PTA, without their support, Henry's visit would not have been possible.  Thank you, thank you, thank you for supporting the library and our kids' reading and writing.