Author Barb Rosenstock Visits Mark DeLay School

On Earth Day, April 22, acclaimed author Barb Rosenstock visited Mark DeLay School in Darien, Illinois.  She has written 6 picture books and has several more on the way.   Her books have been granted numerous literary awards from the Chicago Public Library’s Best of the Best list to Washington D.C.’s Capital Choice list.

To prepare students for the author visit, students read Rosenstock’s books during library classes, learned about different genres, and discovered some background information about the author and her writing career.  Students also practiced appropriate behavior for an author visit and prepared thoughtful questions to ask the author.

Kindergarten and first grade students attended assemblies where the guest author read Fearless: The Story of Racing Legend Louise Smith.  Louise Smith was a pioneer female race car driver in the early days of racing.  Louise was passionate about driving and did not let people stop her from fulfilling her dream of racing cars.  She won at least 38 races in her life and lived to be 90 years old.  Telling students, “Someone’s life is like a giant trunk,” Mrs. Rosenstock revealed a large trunk filled with props.  As she read the story, students showed off racing flags, a steering wheel, a helmet, and other items mentioned in the book.

Where did the author get the idea for this book?  When she was waiting in her dentist’s office reading a magazine, she stumbled upon an article written about Louise Smith.  That was the spark she needed to embark on a journey of research and discovery.  On this journey she uncovered Louise Smith’s past and it resulted in an amazing children’s biography.  One notable feature of the book is that illustrator, Scott Dawson, illustrated the book on an iPad!

Second grade students enjoyed a presentation about Barb Rosenstock’s book, The Camping Trip that Changed America: Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir, and our National Parks.  This story explains how Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir worked together to set aside large portions of land for National Park designation.

Students learned about the giant sequoia trees that Muir and Roosevelt admired and camped beneath.  We discovered that the base of a sequoia tree is as large as 100 students joined together hand in hand!

We also examined a giant sequoia pine cone which is about the size of a chicken egg.  Each cone has 200 seeds.  One single seed, which is roughly the size of an oatmeal flake, can grow the biggest living thing on Earth. The giant sequoias are still standing today because the president and naturalist took this camping trip in 1903.  We are indebted to both of them for this great gift.

Where did the author get the idea for this biography?  When she was searching online for camping trip ideas for her family vacation, she stumbled upon a black and white photograph of Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir together at Yosemite Park.  She was curious about it and decided to investigate further.  The outcome of her “random” Google search resulted in The Camping Trip That Changed America.

Barb Rosenstock even gave us a special preview of her upcoming book (which is expected to be released on September 1), Ben Franklin’s Big Splash: The Mostly True Story of his First Invention.  This story tells about eleven year-old Ben Franklin and his swim fin invention.  The book creatively incorporates the scientific method into its storyline while showing students that inventions need adjustments and modifications.  Reading about science and technology is an important part of the library curriculum at Mark DeLay School and we will be delighted to add this new book to our collection when it comes out.