Today we took our first field trip of the week! We traveled to Random House where we met Matthew Cody, author of the upcoming book Powerless, an adventure/mystery story about kids with superpowers. The novel doesn’t come out until November, but our campers had already been given early copies of the finished manuscript. Most of the members of his family haven’t even read the book yet – they, like the public, will have to wait until November! When we talked to Matt, he told us that he loves superheroes and comic books, as well as the Harry Potter and Percy Jackson book series, and so each had a different part in inspiring the story of Powerless (by the way, his favorite superhero when he was a kid was Batman, and now his favorite is the Flash). We also shared with each other which characters in the story were our favorites, and which powers we thought would be the coolest to have.
TKBC Camp – Day Three
By Jessica PoonPublished on August 5, 2009
Thalia Kids’ Book Club Camp – Day Two
By Jessica PoonPublished on August 4, 2009
We kicked off day two of the TKBC Camp this morning with some lively warm-up exercises with Symphony Space’s Education Associate, Regina Larkin, who helped us stretch our limbs and give our bodies some morning energy.
Our first author of the day then arrived – Michael Buckley, the author of the Sisters Grimm series. He told us about his incredible journey towards becoming the professional writer that he is today, which is almost a book in itself! Starting with an encounter with comedian/actor Eddie Murphy in Michael’s hometown in Ohio, Michael’s career path then lead him to touring as a stand-up comedian with big names like Jon Stewart, and eventually he began writing for some of our favorite cartoon shows, such as Rugrats and the Fairly OddParents. If that wasn’t already a mouthful, we also learned a lot of other things about Michael and being a writer – that he can write almost anywhere, like the park or the zoo, that he gets lots of free books, and even that he wears unicorn pajamas! Read More »
Thalia Kids’ Book Club Camp – Day One
By Jessica PoonPublished on August 3, 2009
The Thalia Kids’ Book Club Camp launched today with a great day full of writing, learning, drawing, reading, and even some acting! After a brief introduction to the new camp and each other, we jumped right into the exciting day with a visit from John Rocco, the cover artist for the kid’s book series Percy Jackson. We learned that he has directed projects for buildings across the nation, Disney, and has even worked on the movie Shrek! John also took us through the artistic process of creating the illustrations not only for book covers but also for entire picture books, which we found out involved a lot of thought and took many stages to complete. Read More »
Preparing for Thalia Kids’ Book Club Camp
By Jennifer BrennanPublished on August 3, 2009
Two weeks ago our fax machine finally got tired of spitting out applications for our Thalia Kids’ Book Club Camp and it decided to break down. But it’s exhaustion (or lack of toner) was well timed, as after weeks of receiving these applications, our new Thalia Kids’ Book Club Summer Camp is full!
After three seasons of bringing together children’s book authors and their fans, we decided to launch a summer camp, and have been eagerly planning to accompany 40 kids (20 each week) on adventures through the city, and through reading and writing. Once the idea started brewing, we started contacting authors to see if they would be interested in participating. Kirsten Miller, author of the Kiki Strike series, came in February to discuss her newest book with a full house of enthusiastic fans (one of whom even came dressed as Kiki Strike herself!). Kirsten was so much fun, that we asked her if she would be interested in leading a tour for our camp of different locations in her books. Her eager agreement was our first commitment from an author and really solidified the camp in our minds.
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