Our 2019 World Read Aloud Day Celebration In Van Meter, Iowa!

World Read Aloud Day 2019 was celebrated on February 1st this year, but because of snowy days and a very special author visit by Michael Dahl on that day, we celebrated on January 31st at Van Meter Community School.

With World Read Aloud Day being a time to celebrate the magic of reading aloud and literacy, I reached out to several of my author and illustrator friends to Skype into our town in Iowa for a little celebration of our own with these amazing friends and over 500 of our preschool, elementary and 6th grade students and teachers.

The first special visitor of the day was Katherine Applegate the amazing author of the Newbery Award winning book, The One and Only Ivan. 

We loved listening to Katherine read Ivan to us, 

introduce and share stories of her dog, 

and answer questions from our 4th graders. 

Next up was, Anne Marie Pace, with our kindergarteners. 

We thought it would be fun for her to share Groundhug Day, since Groundhog Day was right around the corner.  

She shared her newest book too and answered....

...lots of questions from our kindergartners, who, by the way, were dressed up for the 100th Day of School.

Drew Daywalt Skyped with our 1st graders and I have to say,

this was one of our most favorite and funniest Skype connections yet.

Not only did Drew show us books....

...he wrote and...

...books he loved reading as a kid and dad, he also...

...answered lots of super fun questions and even....

took the 2nd graders on a tour of his house. 

Drew and I have Skyped several times over the years...

... but this one was definitely the best yet!  

Our 3rd graders were super lucky because they had two Skype's for World Read Aloud Day.  

The first was with Jarrett Lerner, 

author of Enginerds. 

He not only shared his book, he shared a super funny read aloud with the kids.

We loved listening to Jarrett's strategies for writing and...

...loved talking about his drawing, which we say first hand on the bookmark envelope that he sent. 

Our 3rd graders not only asked wonderful questions, they....

...got to hear a few more of Jarrett;s favorite books including one of mine, Frog and Toad Are Friends. 

After Jarrett, our dear friend Mrs. P (actress Kathy Kinney), 

visit the 3rd graders and shared...

...one of her favorite read alouds, The Wonderful Things You Will Be!  

Again, our 3rd graders came up with interesting questions to ask Mrs. P.  We always love her Skype visits to Van Meter. 

This next Skype with our 5th graders is one that I have been looking forward to for a long time. It was with Lela Nargi, author of the not even released yet book, Karl's New Beak, which will be released by Capstone soon. 

Lela was amazing!  Not only did she share the interesting....

...story of Karl and his beak. 

She also shared so much about being an author of news and nonfiction. 

We loved that media background that she had as an author with Capstone now. 

And we sure can't wait to try to come up with discoveries and solutions of our own with the new 3D printers we are getting in our library, just like they did with Karl. 

As you can see, we did a lot of connecting, reading, sharing and learning for World Read Aloud Day 2019.  It was an amazing day and one filled with so much joy and love. 

But honestly, World Read Aloud Day is all about those connections that you make with each reader and that little spark that goes off when you are reading aloud, sharing books and finding that just right book for each individual student.  It makes a different and World Read Aloud Day makes a difference for all of us in Van Meter, Iowa each and every year.  

Thank you LitWorld for everything you have brought to our readers, families and communities.  We can't wait until 2020!