Connecting with Authors & Others with Twitter

Twitter has become a popular social media tool, and your DCG Elementary teacher librarians are a part of it!

One of the great things about Twitter is that librarians like us can follow authors and illustrators to see what they're working on next and how they interact with their fans. Our first interaction was with author Jef Cezkaj in January 2013, (you can read about it HERE), and we've been "talking" with authors ever since!

So who have we connected with? Authors Lauren Tarshis from the I Survived series and Gordon Korman from the Swindle series both recently replied when students reacted to their books offered in the spring book fair.

Students were reacting to the spring book fair preview DVD.

Students were reacting to the spring book fair preview DVD.

Earlier in the school year, our K - 2 students read the book Otis and the Puppy, by Loren Long, who is also active on Twitter. (You can read about our many activities with the Otis books HERE.) He and author Ame Dyckman replied to our tweets about next year's Iowa Goldfinch books:

Loren Long & Ame Dyckman have books on the 2014-15 Iowa Goldfinch Award list.

Sometimes authors and illustrators will favorite a tweet that we send, like Peter Brown and Lisa McMann:

Mr. Tiger Goes Wild was featured on our recent spring book fair.

The Unwanteds was an Iowa Children's Choice read-aloud w/5th graders.

And it's not only authors who reply and favorite our tweets. Some of the website and apps we use are also set up as Twitter accounts, and they've been great about replying to our tweets as well.

From PowToon regarding the extension work with 5th graders during WIN time

From Wonderopolis regarding our recent 4th & 5th grade work with their website

From Wonderopolis regarding our recent 4th & 5th grade work with their website

From our area education agency regarding our recent DC Elementary reading contest

Twitter has become a wonderful tool for us to use when connecting with authors, illustrators, and others! We're so excited when those we reach out to tweet something back--what a way to get great, immediate feedback! Hope to hear from you soon!

Childrens' Authors and Illustrators Week, Feb. 3 - 9, 2013

The first week in February is set aside as Childrens' Authors and Illustrators Week. The Childrens' Author Network supports the event as a way to make books spring to life and inspire a love for life-long reading and writing.

Want to see an illustrator at work? Click HERE to see Scholastic's videos of Jeff Smith of the Bone graphic novels series and Jim Benton of the Dear Dumb Diary series--among others--creating some of their illustrations.

At South Prairie and at DC Elementary, we looked at popular author/illustrator pairs with kindergarten students in November and December. Featured authors/illustrators included Robert Munsch with illustrators Michael Martchenko and Lea Daniel, Audrey Wood with illustrators Bruce Wood and Don Wood, and Doreen Cronin with illustrators Betsy Lewin and Harry Bliss.

After reading Aaron's Hair by Munsch, students identified a problem and solution, which were written on combs and placed in Aaron's hair. 

After reading many of Wood's alphabet books, kindergarten students also read Piggies and drew their own piggies after tracing their hands.

Finally, after reading Cronin's Diary of a Worm, we visited BookFLIX and talked about the differences between fiction and nonfiction books.