My last day in the Rio Grande Valley ended with a visit to the Mercedes Early Childhood Center! I really enjoyed presenting to all of the Kindergarten and Pre-K kids, using your gigantic, enormous, ginormous screen!

I also want to thank Mrs. Hinojosa for inviting me in the first place. And, thanks to her, MECC’s library may have the most copies of my books out of ALL the libraries!

And guess what? When I came back to sign books at your school’s Literacy Night, I was happy to see some of the kids already making good use of those books.

Thanks again to everyone for an enjoyable trip to Mercedes, TX!

Thanks to all the students at Mercedes Junior High! I really enjoyed sharing my presentation with you and answering all your thoughtful questions. A few of you even emailed me some great questions later! I hope all the 6th Graders aced your TAKS Writing tests and I hope some of my tips were helpful.

Thanks again, Mercedes Junior High for being a great audience. And a big thank you to Mrs. Elizondo for the big gift basket and the cool welcome banner outside the library!

I just returned from the Rio Grande Valley where I visited three wonderful schools in Mercedes, TX. The first one was Travis Elementary. The Travis kids were a great audience and made really cool dragon sounds at the end. Their noises were so realistic, I thought a real dragon was hiding somewhere in the gym!

And a special thanks to Mrs. De La Cerda and Victoria for all your help and for the gift bag. I especially like my Travis Elementary Rocks to the Beat of Success T-shirt.

Keep reading, Travis Elementary! And keep rockin’!

I want to thank all the 4th graders at Otis Spears Elementary! I had a fun day with you and I hope you had as good a time as I did.

I also want to wish you luck on your TAKS Writing tests. Remember what I said; just relax and try to have fun. And when you’re trying to think of what to write, try to come up with a story that you would want to read. Or think of your story as a movie and try to come up with a story that you would watch on the big screen. That’s how I come up with story ideas and it’s a great way to get excited about what you’re writing!

Thanks again and good luck. I know you all are going to be great!

I just finished my second day at Dr. Jack Cockrill Middle School!

I enjoyed meeting each and every one of the 7th graders and I do hope that some of my writing tips are helpful for your TAKS tests.

Don’t forget about what I told you about the dreaded… dum-dum-dum… REVISIONS!
 
And, like I said, feel free to write me any time with any questions. Keep reading, Cockrill Middle School! And keep writing!

Thanks for the great visit!

 

 
There is no better way to end my week in Oklahoma then by visiting Adams Elementary!

You all were a great group of kids, a very well-behaved audience, and asked some awesome all-star questions! Not only that, the Adams All-Stars were naturals at making the oh-so difficult giraffe sound. I just hope we didn’t make too much noise for the music classes next door. Oops!

Thanks for the great visit, Adams Elementary!

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I had a wonderful time at Mustang Trails Elementary! You gave me a big Oklahoma welcome with a custom banner across the common area and my name right outside on the school sign!

I hope everyone remembers to put their bookmarks to good use–when they’re not inside the pages of a great book, don’t forget to use my web address to ask me any question you want! Thanks again, Mustang Trails!

I had an Awesome time at Buchanan Elementary! I hope you all enjoyed my visit as much as I did.

I’m also happy that Macy’s and RIF could help get each and every one of you one of my books. I was happy to sign all 400 of them! Don’t worry, I put some ice on my hand back at the hotel.

Thanks again, Buchanan Elementary!

 
I had a great time with all the kids at Nicoma Park Elementary!

I really appreciate the NPE T-shirt and all of the special applause (I think the fireworks one was my favorite).

And even though you all made some great dragon sounds, I’m glad  I didn’t run into the Library Dragon while I was there!

I’m a little scared!

Thanks again for the great visit, Nicoma Park Elementary!
 
 
 
 
 
 

I had a great time visiting Merriman Park Elementary today! And I must say, of all my gigs so far, these students had the most questions about my experience working in Special FX for the film industry. I have a sneaking suspicion that this school may have an abnormally large number of future FX technicians and filmmakers! Look out, Hollywood, here they come!