We visited a class of second- and third-grade book lovers last week, and talked to them about why and how we wrote and published “Bash And Lucy Fetch Confidence.” As you can see in this photo, Michael, age 5, (“Bash and Lucy” co-author), brought along a stack of his favorite books, and shared them along with “Bash and Lucy.”
In our 45-minute presentation to the young book lovers, we began by talking about what prompted us to write our book: grief over the death of our dog, Lucy. We explained that writing, for us, began with a feeling: sadness. The kids then told us stories about the creative projects they take part in to help them overcome sadness.
We told the kids that we wanted to write a book that featured our ball-loving Lucy as a character, and decided to put her–and a chatty boy who resembles Michael–on a kids’ soccer team. We then asked the kids if they ever write stories that put their friends, family members or pets in unusual or challenging situations. The answer was yes! The students provided lots of examples.
In our presentation to the young book lovers, we talked about the importance of sharing their drafts with others. We explained that when we shared our initial draft, some readers loved “Bash” as a chatty, brainy, know-it-all. But some didn’t like the character. We explained that when we evaluate feedback, we don’t have to make every change suggested by those who read our draft. We have to listen to our “guts.” Lisa explained that the feedback about the first, super-brainy Bash kept “itching” at her, and she decided to change his character and make him more vulnerable.
We also talked about Michael’s critical role. When Lisa first started writing the story herself, she got “stuck,” and turned to her book lover for help. He came up with lots of ideas, and suddenly found himself in the role of co-author, a role he embraced with much enthusiasm. He also became chief blogger (via YouTube).
The other topics we cover include:
–Our excitement about winning two awards and being featured on the Today Show!
–What’s a conflict in a story and why is it important?
–How do you create characters and make them believable?
–How to use your feelings when you’re writing?
–What are the advantages and disadvantages of self-publishing?
The teacher then read the book to the class, and we said we planned on creating a series. We asked the kids if they had ideas for Parts 2, 3, and 4 of “Bash and Lucy,” and lots of hands shot up! Their ideas included:
–Bash and Lucy Play Baseball (and other sports)
–Lucy Falls in Love
–Lucy Has Puppies
–Lucy Coaches the Team
–Lucy Goes to School
–Bash and Lucy Fetch Treasure
(During a visit to a different class, the kids came up with lots of other ideas for the next books, including: Lucy Plays Catcher in Baseball, Lucy’s Puppies Join the Team, and Lucy Becomes a Doctor.)
We loved the kids’ enthusiasm and ideas! At the end of the presentation, the kids’ teacher, John, shared a few videos from Michael’s Dog Blog, including our book trailer:
And the kids chuckled at some of Michael’s book reviews on YouTube. In future presentations, we plan on teaching kids how to do book reviews. We’ll discuss the importance of using detail and feeling to make book reviews come alive. Here’s one example of a book review:
Michael Reviews “Bad Dog Bailey”
When it was all over, the kids surrounded Michael and told him that they think he’s funny, which really made his day. Those who didn’t get his business card asked us to come back and bring more. And finally, we invited the kids to do YouTube videos with us–and we’re waiting for their answer!
If you’d like us to do a presentation at your school, email us at BashAndLucy@gmail.com
How Our Presentation Helps Teachers Meet Oregon’s Common Core Standards for English Language Arts.
In Oregon, our presentation helps teachers meet Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts. For example, we help kids “determine central ideas or themes and analyze their development” and “analyze how and why individuals, events and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.” Our presentation helps students “integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats” (ie YouTube book reviews). For kindergarteners (and above), we ask and answer questions about key details in a text, identify characters, setting, and major events in a story. We “ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text” and define the role of the author and illustrator of a story. We “describe the relationship between illustrations and the story.”
In addition, by teaching kids how to do book reviews, we work with them to “state an opinion or preference about the topic or book.” We are also available to “explore a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.” In fact, as we mention above, collaborating with peers is critical to our presentation. We discuss how important it was to gather feedback from peers, and how to interpret and act on that feedback.
Most important, our presentation is fun and we’re super excited about our book, about reading and about book reviewing! We believe our enthusiasm is contagious.
P.S. Michael is wearing a blue cape in this photo because he wears his batman costume when he tells heroic dog stories on YouTube. He wanted to share that tidbit with the class.