Reading Council and Local Children's Author Claudia Little

Halloween may be over, but I am being haunted by voices… My blog has been talking to me. It’s saying “It’s been over a month since you last spoke to me.” Scary, isn’t it? Is it because I have had nothing to blog about? Quite the contrary! Plenty of things have happened since my last entry-  from wonderful happenings in the classroom to awesome professional development experiences. If I have time, I will catch up on all these experiences.

However, for today, I would like to share about the local Reading Council meeting I attended tonight.  Local children’s author, Claudia Little, spoke to us about making connections with our students and helping students improve their writing. Claudia is a retired teacher and lives in Spearfish, South Dakota. Claudia is the author of two books, Patches, My Mustang and Mudpies. Patches began as a story growing up on a ranch. Claudia's fourth and fifth grade students became her editors. Mudpies is a beautiful rhyming book about the simple pleasures in life. Both books are illustrated by Sharon Grey, who was a former student of Claudia’s back in the third grade.  The illustrations in Patches are charcoal. The illustrations in Mudpies are gorgeous watercolor paintings with real children used as models. Check out the following website for more information on Claudia: http://www.photographs.galeymiller.org/History/Spearfish-Area-Historical/4458366_emTYG/4 Claudia also gives presentations to classrooms. Her contact information is: 605-642-4227 or clittle@spe.midco.net.

Claudia was available to sign copies of her books. I picked up copies for several of my colleagues. Don’t books make the greatest gifts? And I couldn’t resist adding Patches and Mudpies  to my own library. One can never have too many books. Just don’t ask my husband!  We were also treated to some delicious goodies. To make a good evening better, I won the door prize- a $10.00 gift card to Borders!  Did I say one can never have too many books?