“Sorry, grown-ups! You can't go to school! Only kids and teachers!" the first graders chanted gleefully along with the special guest in Meadow Pond Elementary’s library—the one with the book in her hands and a matching sense of joy and playfulness!
Author Christina Geist delighted first graders with a book talk on April 25. Students discovered more about themselves as writers and readers through Geist’s books including “Sorry Grown-Ups, You Can’t Go To School!” and “Buddy’s New Buddy.”
Student quickly connected with Geist’s warmth and lighthearted approach. Geist built on the rapport to dispel any myths about authors living in ivory towers, far away. “Authors can be your neighbors---people you see at the playground and at the grocery store,” Geist said with a smile. “I am your neighbor. I live just up the street in South Salem.”
Geist also encouraged young writers’ creativity by reminding them that authors can do anything they want in their books. She flipped to a page in “Sorry Grown-Ups, You Can’t Go To School!” that showed a grandmom doing cartwheels dangerously close to another, much younger, student. “That could have been the author’s worst idea ever!”
Small ah-ha’s filled the library as students connected ideas in Geist’s storybooks to things they knew to be true. You can see feelings in pictures. People do have “real” names—ones only used at home or on important papers. We can make new friends—all it takes is finding a little common ground.
Thank you for visiting, Christina Geist, and for sponsoring the visit, MPES PTO!