Doll-E & Shandra McCloskey Visit The Van Meter 2nd Graders!

Today, we had a very special Skype with our new friend, author and illustrator, 

 Shanda McCloskey and our 2nd graders in the library. 

Shanda is the amazing author and illustrator of one of our favorite books of 2018....Doll-E 1.0!  

 In fact, this is Shandra's debut book...

 ... and we loved listening to her read it to us. As she read, she shared fun little things about the characters and happenings throughout the book. 

 When she was done reading, Shandra drew Bluetooth,

 and Doll-E.

You will find the directions on how to draw Doll-E and Blutooth here...

... on her site to share with your kids so they can draw them. 

When she was done with the first two characters, one of the boys came up and asked her to draw...

...Charolette too! 

She is adorable and one cool girl! 

And Shanda, super cool too.  :)   Thank you so much for Skyping into Van Meter, Iowa from your home.  We all loved having you visit to share your book, upcoming projects and your "why" as an author.  It was fascinating, inspiring and lots of fun. 

We hope you come back soon! 

You can read more about DOLL-E 1.0 in my post, A STEM-Friendly Tale of a Girl and Her Doll....Doll-E 1.0 here. 

Michael Dahl, Author & Storyteller, Is Coming To Van Meter For Our WRAD Celebration!

We are very excited to share that our friend, author and storyteller, Michael Dahl, is coming to Van Meter Community School on February 1, 2019 to help us celebrate World Read Aloud Day!

He will be sharing his newest Capstone picture book, Family is a Superpower, Cave of the Bookworms and several others with the students and teachers, and a few friends and libraries we will be connecting with online as we celebrate WRAD on that day. 

Here is Michael's schedule for the day and all of the special activities we have planned.  

We hope you follow along on our library Instagram and Twitter @vmlibraryvoice and on our Facebook Page, The Library Voice, throughout the day.  

Josh Funk & His Virtual Visit To Our Students In Iowa!

Last week, we had the honor of having one of our favorite authors, 

Josh Funk, visit the Van Meter kindergarteners and...

...my sister Heather's students in Amana, Iowa.  

Josh was amazing as he talked about writing and how he became an author.

He even answered questions from our kindergarteners and Heather's kids in Amana.  This is always one of our favorite parts!  

And one of my favorite parts was when Josh read Lost in the Library, which is one of our favorite new library books. 

It was an amazing Skype!  Everyone loved it so much. 

Now, I just have to show you Josh's website!  

It is amazing! You will find it here too.  

On his site, there is a page just for kids filled with....

 Character Cards, 

Book Trailers, 

Play Book Songs, 

 Activity Kits and Coloring Pages, 

 Activity Kits filled with...

 ...so much fun for our....

 ...learners, readers,

classroom teachers and librarians.

We especially love the Lost in the Library Activity Kit since this is the one Josh read to us during his Skype visit.

One last thing....You must check out Josh's Resources for Writers where he has developed 12 lessons for writing picture books.  These are all so awesome and will be super helpful and meaningful to our young writers. 

Thank you Josh for visiting our libraries and inspiring our students and teachers.  YOU are amazing, my friend!  We can't wait until you visit again!