Book Talking to Teens....

You may have been wondering why I haven't posted lately. Well it's a number of reason really. First I've been going to the gym a lot lately and I've also been preparing for a book talk and a craft show. 2nd when you're a commuter you spend a lot of time in the car-now I'm sure some of you could blog in your car but I haven't figured that one out yet. If all goes according to plan my commute will be a lot shorter. I've also been looking at apartments and trying to figure out my money situation. Everything is due in the month of may-car payment,insurance,tags,cell phone,etc. So I've been cooking a lot as well. I've made strawberry rhubarb pie again-I got the crust perfect this time(yeah!). Cornbread salad-I know it sounds funny but it's oh so good. I've also been experimenting with salads. I've fallen in love with walnuts and cranberries they are excellent salad mates. If you add a little diced chicken and some cherry tomatoes to your salad greens you're in business. I've been a little busy as you can see.

Well I gave my first formal book talk last night to some 14-year old. They were mildly disruptive but on the whole they at least listened. I did have some interactions from the students. I asked if they knew what a reservation was. One of the kids said it was a nursing home, another one said it's where they keep the Indians(what are they horses kept in a corral?). I then had one student who raised his hand(home training works!) and when I called on him-he told the class that a reservation was government land set aside for the Indians-(smart guys rule!). I then had a kid ask me what was the smallest book I had up there-I showed him-"That's small?! how many pages is it? 211 pages. He looked so dejected. So told them about the library,SRC,Fresh Start,and being a volunteen. I actually had two volunteens in my class(that sounds so weird like I'm a teacher or something). I got all kinds of questions I couldn't answer like-how many assignments are we going to have to do on these books. I kind of fielded them you know gave them a little direction but didn't say much else. On the whole it was a valuable experience-I'm doing it again tonight and what i think I'll change is my format. I don't think I'll be doing any readings from the book. I'll just try and generate conversation and nudge them towards the books. I was a little nervous at first but it got better as I went along. I'm still not ready to talk in front of 50 teens but I can hold my own with 15-20 of them.