I’m currently in Ontario, Canada, to celebrate TD Children’s Book Week. I kicked off the week by appearing at the Ontario Literary Association’s festival in Niagara Falls along with fellow creators Tanya Lloyd Kyi, Kari-Lynn Winters, and Iskwé.
After delivering a presentation on my writing process and how I get ideas, I led a workshop for Grades 3-5 on crafting wizardly characters. Here’s some of the casts of characters my students created:
The kids were having so much fun, I decided to design right alongside them by sketching a villainous wizard. This is a character I’ve been working on for some time. He comes in various forms, so I decided to sketch him in his most reptilian of phases:
I also peeked in on the workshops that Tanya and Kari were delivering. Tanya did a workshop on characters who have to face survival in the wilderness. I loved her worksheet, which allowed kids to brainstorm the personality and skills of their would-be-survivor.
Kari’s workshop was for younger kids, and one of the projects was to make a sloth puppet, based on her character from her book Jeffrey and Sloth. I couldn’t resist making my own:
Next up in the schedule, is a day off to recharge and prepare for a full five days of school and library presentations.
Between the Cracks of Here and There 