OTIS and Loren Long Visits Van Meter To Celebrate "Read for the Record" With All Of Us!

Today we celebrated Read for the Record day at Van Meter with thousands of other students, teachers, families, and communities.  We have enjoyed celebrating this day every year as it brings us all together as readers and friends.  We have been planning this celebration for weeks....and it was finally here!

This year we had a very special guest come to our library for Read for the Record.

Loren Long and his wonderful book OTIS, which was the official Read for the Record book today, joined Van Meter and children from three other schools in a Google Hangout to celebrate.

We were so excited to see Loren come into the Google Hangout......big fans from all of the schools cheered extra loud today.  

He started out by reading OTIS to all of us.  I have read this book dozens of times, but this was the best time for all of us.  

Loren answered questions from each school.  We learned about what inspired him to write OTIS and why he is a tractor.  He also talked about the other characters in this sweet series.  

My son Hagan asked the question from Van Meter.  We loved hearing all of the books that Loren has written and illustrated.  

One of my favorites that he illustrated is Mr. Peabody's Apples by Madonna.  It was fun to talk to him about it too. 

Loren  drew little OTIS for all of us too.  The kids were amazed at how fast and how perfect he was. I heard a lot of comments like, "I want to be an artist like Loren Long too." 

You can watch our Google Hangout with Loren and the others here.

This was one of the BEST connections we have had with an author and illustrator.  We are very thankful and happy we were able to "Be Counted In The World Record" with Loren and new friends.

You can "Be Counted" on the Jumpstart website too!  

The "World Record Reader" certificates can be found on the We Give Books website too.  I can't wait to give these to the students tomorrow too.  

            

Thank you, Loren.  You are awesome and we can't wait until you visit our library again my friend.