Canadian Children’s Book Week – The Saskatchewan Tour

 
I arrived at Regina airport to thunderous applause. I just assumed they took Children’s Book Week very seriously in the Canadian heartland. There was even a woman holding a sign with my name. She was the head honcho children’s librarian for the city no less, and she came by to drive me to my hotel. The [...]

A Learning Moment (from Calgary)

An author or storyteller visit doesn’t have to be a one-off deal. It’s great when students are prepped before a visit, but I think it’s just as great to use the experience to build on.
Here is an example from Chief Justice Milvain School in Calgary. The wonderful grade two teacher (I don’t put names on [...]

The Calgary Tour

My goodness, I’ve been back a week and still nothing more about my Calgary tour? I’m the first to admit that I’m a lame blogger.
What about my memories? 8 schools. 10 glorious autumn days. What do I remember?
I remember my luggage. My poor, vulnerable luggage.
Here is my luggage leaving Vancouver airport:

Just waiting to be crushed [...]

I’m in Calgary and boy is it sunny!

Last year I toured in Calgary in November and it was 40 below! Today, it was 20 degrees above, blue sky and Autumn colours everywhere you looked. (sigh)
I was up and out early this morning to get to St. Bede Elementary School in the north end of Calgary and then I was at Father Doucet [...]

And we’re off!

The touring season has officially begun. Yesterday I spent a wonderful day at a wonderful school, namely, Lena Shaw Elementary School in Surrey, BC.
It was a marathon day. Two book presentations with grades five and six. A comedy writing workshop with the grade 7. A storytelling session with K-2 (all 200 of em!) and a storytelling [...]

Phew! First review / a positive review

My editor at Clarion Books just sent me a copy of a Such a Prince review in Kirkus. I’m happy to say that it’s a positive review. Reviews are not the be all and end all of one’s creative endeavors, but as some people who work in the arts will say, your creative project can [...]

the end of summer is nigh

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been using these last few weeks to gear up for the new school year. Sure, I might not have bought a new pencil case or lunch box like you have. Sure, I might not have gotten a shiny new haircut. But I did manage to put together a [...]

my summer

My blog barely out of the wrapper and already I’m tardy with my entries. But to be fair, it’s summer and my summer has been a whirlwind of yacht parties, art gallery openings and ribbon cutting events (like the recent one I attended for a newly-opened ribbon factory). This is, of course, all lies. My [...]

My new children’s author blog. Ooooooh!

Here’s my thinking:
My website (www.danbar-el.com ) was getting old and dusty. There were pages that should have been changed or refreshed but I got distracted and/or lazy and/or kidnapped by pirates. So now I have a blog and that will take care of everything, right?
Well … here it goes.