Gifts! Wow--just wow!

The next stop on my Napa County Reads SHIFTY tour was Silverado Middle School. The students were great again. We were in a library here--and take a look at the student work I discovered on the library bulletin boards. Fun, fun, fun!! I saw SHIFTY-themed bookmarks and a great art and literacy activity where students made "gifts" for the characters in my book. What a gift to the author to see this--so inspiring. The students really showed a lot of creative thought toward the characters and the story by the gifts they chose to give.

It's was a colorful visual delight.
Wow, just wow!
Take a look at the gifts the students gave to Soli/Shifty, Sissy and Martha. Baby Chance and Lester the Cat got gifts, too. Even one of the book's antagonists, Sheila-not-Shelly, got a gift (some "chill pills," a happy stamp and candy to sweeten her life and make her chill out a bit!) Ha! That made me smile!
















And the gift to the author? Meeting all the students who were reading SHIFTY--and the whole Napa Reads experience! Thanks Napa County students, teachers, arts and educational community. If you were the teacher(s) who created this project, please re-introduce yourself to me. Thanks so much. Please thank your students, too. Posting these pics made me happy all over again.

Here's the cool video about Napa County Reads.
Be sure to watch to the end to see the children's chorus!

Napa County Reads 2010

To read more about my experiences with Napa County Reads, please look here, here, and here.

Napa Valley Opera House & Redwood Middle School

Here we are back at the Opera House. And here are some of the students who attended. I think these delightful young ladies were from Redwood Middle School. They came up to have their books signed and to strongly encourage me to write a sequel to SHIFTY! We took this picture to keep reminding me to write a sequel or companion book. Seeing their sweet faces and remembering all the student and professional artists I met that night will certainly inspire me when I'm in the midst of writing and rewriting.


I met Redwood Middle School's After School program teachers and several of the student artists.
Here is the Teacher's Statement and some of the truly wonderful planter boxes created by the student artists. Take a look and also take a look at the video made by the Napa County Office of Education and the Arts Council Napa Valley to see the students in action. At the end of the video is the Napa Valley Children's Chorus, too!

This planter was on wheels! And there's Lester!

Here is the other side of the planter on wheels. Soli would approve!

Love the colorful peace symbols below and how Lester keeps showing up again and again.

A couple of weeks after the event, a friend who attended surprised me with a gift of the red-heart planter above. Sweet! I'm using it to keep my CD's organized and every time I see it, it makes me smile.

Below, here's Lester again. Maybe Lester needs a book of his own next? Love the colorful flowers and use of buttons and objects on the Shifty-themed planters.


These two are also cool, as were the rest of the student-made planters. See the video for a view of a few more. I could have spent hours taking pics of them all and reading the artist statements.


Are these the work of student artists? Or professional artists? I'm not sure. The pictures got all jumbled on my camera, I was so excited to see them all. Either way, I love all the colors and designs and how different artists interpreted various characters, themes and scenes in the book. If you are one of the artists of any of these planters on this page or any other blog pages here and want credit for your great work, please comment below and I'll add your name. (Students, please ask your parents' permission of course)
If you bought of the planters at the auction, please comment which one. I'd love to see pics of them in their new homes, too!
The day after the Opera House event I spoke at Redwood Middle School. The venue this time was the school library, so there were not nearly as many students as at Harvest Middle School, but they were equally well-prepared, they had great questions and were very enthusiastic.

School visits, Shifty Music, and a "this is not a drill" FIRE ALARM!

Napa County Reads SHIFTY!

My first day of Napa County school visits after my Napa Valley Opera House presentation began at Harvest Middle School. I met the principal and more amazing teachers including science teacher extraordinaire, Ms. Laura Lewis. Ms. Lewis had rallied the other science teachers in the weeks prior to take a bit of time to read SHIFTY aloud to their students during their science classes because the English curriculum was filled to the max with little time for reading aloud.
That's me on the left, Laura Lewis to the right of Shifty, and another great teacher. (I met so many amazing teachers and librarians, counselors and youth advocates during Napa Reads! I hope someone reminds me of the other teacher's name.)

Ms. Lewis was great. She showed me her copy of SHIFTY with several different bookmarks, marking the slightly different progress of several science classes. Because of Ms. Lewis and the other science teachers, most of the students had heard at least half of SHIFTY read aloud. This makes all the difference for a successful author visit. She also prepared a totally cool mix of music from the songs in the book, mostly the songs of Martha's misheard lyrics. So that made me smile and put me in a good mood as the students filed in (and in, and in, and in!) Bleachers and bleachers of students! We're talking about a half-gym full of 6th, 7th and 8th graders, maybe 300-350+, which would normally make me a bit nervous to start. But like I said, the songs made me remember some funny moments in the book and put me at ease. Thank you Ms. Lewis!

Harvest Middle School students created the colorful poster below of the cover of the book which they asked me to sign. The poster will hang in their school library with several other author visit posters.

I wish I could have gone to the library to see all the posters hanging in there--but it was time to start my presentation!

The students were super responsive and engaged! They participated actively, asked great questions, and then suddenly--

--THE FIRE ALARM WENT OFF--!

Yikes! It was LOUD! I was told "this is not a drill." Okay, so it was time to leave the gym. The teachers and students were incredible as they filed safely out of the gym along with the rest of the school to the yard outside. It took some time to make sure everything was okay and to file everyone systematically back into the gym! Luckily we were in a 90 minute block period so once everyone was seated again we resumed with a teensy bit more of my presentation and Q & A (my favorite part). Again the students were lively and engaged and had really great questions.
That's me again with Dr. Barbara Nemko, superintendent of schools, admiring the poster at Harvest Middle School. Today in the mail, I received a BIG packet of letters from Barbara. She shared the letters that the students at Harvest Middle School had sent, thanking her for the copies of SHIFTY for the students to read and for bringing me to school. I'd like to thank Dr. Nemko, too!

The students' letters were fun and I'll quote some here soon, but now I need to post more pics of Shifty-themed planter planter boxes created by the after school students at Redwood Middle School.

A Great Surprise Video about Napa County Reads

This was a fun surprise to find in my google alerts!
A video about Napa County Reads.
Be sure to watch to the end to see the children's chorus!

Napa County Reads 2010

Napa County Reads Shifty: More Amazing Shifty-themed Planter Boxes

Family and friends have been asking to see more Shifty-themed planter boxes created by professional and student artists that were auctioned at the Napa Valley Opera House to support literacy by Napa County Reads. I'm happy to share the following pictures. You can see my earlier posts about Napa County Reads and more totally cool Shifty-themed planters here, here, and here.

Toby Gewertz is the artist of the amazing planter box above.

Soli loves to drive. How cool is this planter-on-wheels by Gary Snethen?

I was overwhelmed and touched with how unique and beautiful each of the planter boxes were. I loved seeing what parts of my novel spoke to the artists and how the artists brought scenes, settings, characters and themes to a different media.

When I was writing SHIFTY, I was just trying to capture the story the best I could--to bring Soli, Sissy, Martha, and Chance's story to life on the page. Seeing parts of Shifty's story brought to life in these planters was unexpected, wonderful and truly inspiring!


I'd love to match up the artist names with each of the boxes. If you created one of these planter boxes or know the artists' names, please comment, and I'll add them. Thanks!

This colorful planter box must have been inspired by Sissy's fortune cookie early in the story which said, "Keep a green tree in your heart and a songbird will come."

Below is a pic of Soli/Shifty depicted as a shape-shifter Coyote by artist Hugo Corro. See Hugo Corro's artist statement, Sissy as a rabbit, and more views of the planter box here.


I tried to take lots of pictures at the Opera House event to remember them all, but I was also meeting many amazing people that night and I was just a little bit nervous about my upcoming talk. So if you were there at the Napa Valley Opera House and you took pictures or bought one of the planter boxes, I'd love to see your planter in its new home, see more pics or hear why a particular planter "spoke" to you.

If you are one of the artists who participated, thank you, THANK you for depicting Shifty's story. The artists' statements were amazing too, but the lighting posed a challenge in getting pictures of the artist statements without too much reflection. You can see a few of them in the preview here.

Forecast: More Shifty-themed planter boxes coming soon.

And please comment below. What are your fav's and why?
Are you one of the artists? Please tell me which box you created and share your artist statement. And if you bid on one of the boxes, please tell us what drew you to that planter box. Thanks!!

More Napa Reads SHIFTY-Themed Planter Boxes

Please take a look at some more cool SHIFTY-themed planter boxes and artist statements by Napa Valley students and professional artists. Pretty amazing, don't you think?

These were on display at the Napa Main Library.
These SHIFTY-themed planters and MORE will be displayed for silent auction at the free Napa County Reads Public Event on Wed. Oct. 27th at the Napa Valley Opera House. Learn more about 2010 Napa Reads SHIFTY! here.

I love how many different scenes, themes and characters in the book the artists have chosen to depict. Which is your favorite? Please leave a comment below. And of course please join me at the Napa Valley Opera House this Wednesday evening, October 27 for the Napa Reads Reception and Silent Auction to support literacy.

I was so impressed by the artists' statements. Take a moment to read them and then look at their art.


Here are Soli & Sissy as shape-shifters. Soli is depicted as Coyote and Sissy, now a Rabbit, is wearing her sweater. How cool are these animal renditions of the characters in SHIFTY? Totally cool, right? The artist is Hugo Corro. I peeked at his website. He says he is taking commissions. I like his art and I like his attitude. And I tell you, his rates for portraits are very reasonable!

Soli above, Sissy below.
(Sorry for the slight blurriness of the one above.
I must have been so excited to see these that I was shaking!

The planter below was on display at the Gessell Gallery and I couldn't find the artist statement. Still, I love this image of Lester, Martha, Sissy & Soli. I was delighted to see how many planter boxes had portrayed Lester, too. It makes me very happy that Lester's personality must have come through in the story. Meowp! Scroll down a bit more to see the Fish Heads for Lester mosaic planter and artist's statement below.

Meowp! Another of my favorite literary cats!

I'm a big gardener, so I really enjoyed seeing all the plants, flowers and seeds painted on these planters.

Here's my favorite bridge. So glad to see it here.

I've enlarged the Family sign because I really like the definition!

I am also so happy that home schoolers were involved with reading SHIFTY and creating planters with Napa Reads .







Don't you love the bright and cheery joyfulness of all that orange--and the planter boxes, flowers and curtains in the window? Feels like home!

Okay, I know it is hard to choose favorites, but which planter boxes or artists' statements do you like best? And why?

Forecast: Even more Shifty-themed planters at the Napa Valley Opera House on Wed. night, October 27th.

These SHIFTY-themed planters and MORE will be displayed for silent auction at the free Napa County Reads Public Event on Wed. Oct. 27th at the Napa Valley Opera House. Learn more about 2010 Napa Reads SHIFTY! here.