The Gabriel World Book of Records, coming this summer!

Justin Matott has teamed up with David Schiedt again (previously collaborated on Drinking Fountain Joe) http://busteryork.com for the third book in the Go Ask Mom series! With a new vision for design and illustration, it seems Gabriel had taken the reins here and through Mr. Schiedt is drawing us in to the new book. There will be 6 books ...in the series and a comic book series as well, based on Glenn The Sea Monkey, who makes his first appearance in the third book titled The Gabriel World Book of Records - Stories from the tree house. If you haven't read the first two, it will make for great summer reading as a family or for those young uns.

The books will and are available on line at www.justinmatott.com

My son and his buddies in their new video: If guys were like girls...

My son is a broadcast journalism major at CU and spends a lot of his time in front and behind the camera. His friends first put together this video to assist Freshmen in learning the wonders of the ladies... The video is entertaining and well produced. (My son, Ethan, is the one who first introduces the video from under his SUV and then later in a plaid shirt.) Please forward the youtube to your friends on both of these videos. The race is on. Who will get on Ellen first, me or them?

How to get girls:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2paLkR6KEZc&feature=watch_response

Then they put together this tongue in cheek look at what it would be like if guys were like girls. (My son is in the bright blue shirt.) It was posted on youtube.com about a week ago and within days was a featured video on the front page and is now heading toward half a million views and beyond.

This is true viral video. Who knows where it goes next. I just keep thinking that Justin Bieber (now a household name) was picked up by Usher because of a youtube video he made for his grandma. Perhaps my son and the 835 Crew are headed toward fame? You watch and decide. And before anyone calls a foul for potential "sexism", please remember the girls from their youth group at CU made 'If Girls were like guys'!



If Guys were like girls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ6WpVSutrM

Ludy & Matott work together at Flynn Elementary

I visited Flynn Elementary for my third time this week. It is a school with a delightful library, because the librarian is delightful and committed to making it a central hub for the students and staff. It is a comfortable and inviting place. I have enjoyed visiting Flynn over the past few years, but never as much as yesterday with Mark Ludy, one of the most talented humans I know.
Mark Ludy (illustrator extraordinaire) and I visited Flynn Elementary to share our love for creating stories in four workshops throughout the day. We worked with students from kindergarten to fifth grade, building the elements of WHO, WHERE, WHEN, WHY, WHAT and created the prompt for a picture book with the students throwing out his or her ideas in each session. It is amazing to see children's creativity when given the chance to explore the "wilder" side of writing.
The students are called upon to help build the blocks to creating the story, beginning with character development. I tell them the ideas must be "school appropriate", meaning they should be able to read our story to a kindergartner and to their principal. They usually come up with something to do with bodily functions, butt (sic) hey, they are kids after all. The fun begins with eager hands reaching up and ideas pouring out of them. The teachers are also fun to watch as they see students participating gleefully.
Next, we must put these characters into a setting, so we come up with the WHERE and the WHEN. Once that is established we come up with the WHY. Why we are writing about this and what we want our audience to experience, be it humor, scary, romance or whatever, then we commit to our main idea and carry it through the story. Once we have all that we then can add the WHAT, the plot lines, what our characters will do where we place them. (NOTE: the first item in the setting was volunteered by none other than the Librarian's grandson).
Now we are ready to rock and roll! The students break in to groups of four or five and go to work on the verb bank to bring tons of action to the story! Meanwhile, I begin a prompt while Mr. Ludy draws from our session.


The end result is that the students see the blank paper turned into the makings of a great story and they see the characters Mr. Ludy has prepared for them in the setting. WHAT A GREAT DAY FOR EVERYONE INVOLVED!


Mark Ludy and I both visit schools independently all over the country, but if you really want to make it something special, please have us visit your school together. You will not be dissappointed, just ask the schools that have us back again and again... We both simply love kids and love working with them to hone that creative gift!


If you would like to explore the possibilities for your school, please contact me at justin@justinmatott.com

If you'd like to learn more about Mr. Ludy and his books, please visit his website:
http://www.markludy.com/The_Loodalicious_Cafe/The_Books.html

March is such a great research month!

This world of ours is so incredible! There is so much beauty it is almost indescribable, even for someone who perhaps talks too much and works with words all day.

This month I have been traveling and am beginning to forget what my home office looks like. I fell deeply in love with the ocean when I was eight years old and have longed to live near one ever since. Swaying palm trees, the sound of the waves lapping against the shore, seagulls complaining in the distance, the surfers catching air on temporal waves and the murmur of white noise in the sea breeze strangely feel like home for this landlocked Colorado native.

Yesterday I went on a five hour hike into the back country of Kauai and swam in an icy pool fed by one of the most incredible waterfalls I have ever been up close to. For those of you who watch LOST it was like being on the set of the show. I expected Hurley to pop out at any moment. My ankles and knees have never been so sore, but it was so totally worth it!

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to scuba dive on a liveaboard boat in the Bahamas. We did 24 dives in 6 days, including reef, drift, night, wrecks, shark and other dive styles! It was wonderful on on of the wreck dives to have an EPIPHANY about a picture book I am working on titled; There's A School In The Pool! about an elementary school at the bottom of the ocean. The book deals with fears and cliques and just great oceanic fun, but for some reason I was stuck on the setting. I kept visualizing the school in a cave, but it never worked well. THEN, I was diving a wreck and looked into the hull into what once was a living quarters and it became clear! Sitting at the bottom of the room was a giant lobster who was a bit irritated at me for shining my light in his face. I suddenly saw the whole thing. A cruise ship with many, many rooms for classrooms that had sunk at the bottom of the ocean. The Principal with the spiny personality and it all came together. That one dive made the whole trip worthwhile, even though I would never question the validity of the whole experience. It was awesome! Now I am sitting on the island of Kauai as I write this and a whole new book is forming here in the Pacific in my mind. From Atlantic to Pacific and I just got an invite to go to the Solomon Islands, which might provide even more inspiration. When kids ask me in almost every school I visit, "What is the coolest part about being an author?" I think I just might have a new answer!

Sometimes you just have to "be there" to get it right. As I drive by houses here on the island I look at them as potential places for my new home office. It's snowing back home. I don't miss it.

REVISE TO BE WISE

So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads. -Dr. Seuss

Warming my bike up for the spring... this video is for my posse!

It has been snowing quite a bit here in Colorado and while I love that for winter sports, I am ready for warmth and sun and spring and gardening and OH NO, more squirrel adventures, but mostly I love biking in the Rocky Mountains and YES, I DO USUALLY wear a helmet, but this was a quick trip to fill that tank and mail some books to my readers.

The quality of this video is a bit lacking, but that is mostly because I was riding my Hawg, while filming with my iphone while trying to figure out if I was going to be able to shift... while...

Enjoy yourselves out there!

Gabe gets a new look!

The Go Ask Mom series is getting a whole new look, new covers, new illustrator, same old author. David Scheidt, who illustrated Drinking Fountain Joe is re-illustrating Go Ask Mom and The World According to Gabe as well as illustrating books 3-6 in the series AND we are collaborating on a comic book (written from Gabe's perspective) called The Sea Monkey That Ate My Brother.

I am SO EXCITED to see the new perspectives in your hands. The third book is scheduled to be completely designed and finished by end of month, so it could be in book stores by late Spring.

Getting the Hollywood treatment!

The Dream books are sold out everywhere (except at amazon.com and my website). They will be reprinted this spring with a little bit of a facelift. I hope you are dreaming big and living even bigger!

SISTER ACT!

Some time ago I wanted to start a cool segment for my blog where I featured kids reading my books! I thought it would encouraging for other kids to see that books are cool and a photo gallery of kids enjoying my books seemed the ticket. Problem is when you have less than 30 followers on your blog it is hard to get the word out... so I got a handful and then moved on to other subjects to tackle...
Perhaps that is a signal to me to write something more interesting??? HA HA, or as they say on the internet LOL.

NOW, here is something fun that happened. I met a very nice woman at the gym where I work out who shared with me that after her daughter met me, had me sign a copy of Go Ask Mom for her, then took it home and saran wrapped it so it would stay in good condition. I was flattered, but also think the book is worth reading, SO, I brought in a copy of the sequel for her, unsigned, with the caveat that after she read it, I would sign it (the trick is she would want to read the first book in the series before she read the second, right?

So, the next thing you know she unwrapped it and dove in. Not long after she and her sister were in the gym with mom and I took the opportunity to "walk the track" with her to see if she was enjoying the book and if she had any advice for me as I am writing six books in the series. She is a delightful young lady!

Her little sister was busy watching a video of Justin Bieber (new teen singing sensation, Tiger Beat kind of kid) on her electronic device and could barely be bothered with all this "book talk". "Someday, I thought... maybe she'll read one of my books too!"

Lo and behold... she did! NOT ONLY did she read one of my books, but she made some drawings to go with it...


















(To those of you who follow my blog, you have no idea how much you mean to me, to think you might be enjoying it enough to get a chuckle or a thought that is worth passing along, THANK YOU! Please pass it on...)

Thanks SISTERS, you made my day! Now, get off the computer and go read a book!

NO GUM ZONE

I am always looking for creative ways teachers and parents allow kids to be just kids. In a particular middle school there is a librarian/media specialist who gets it. She also has three boys of her own, which helps! She had a problem with gum, even though there is a no gum chewing within the school policy, there was still a sticky problem that needed to be solved. She did and does so in a creative way and my hat is off to her.

Do you have an example of a teacher who has taken a problem and turned it back to the students to provide the solution?

THE NO GUM ZONE POEM

"What part of NO don't you understand?"
Then that librarian planned and planned...

She came up with a great solution
to end the school's sticky pollution!

"If you must chew, take your last taste
then deposit here your toxic waste..."

Then gum piles began to grow
inside the jar, they made quite a show!

The students looked forward to building the mess
and the librarian's books were thus quite blessed!

No more sticky pages, no gum under the table
if you make it fun, they are all quite able!

Now the Gum Jar has become the place
to deposit gum from each student's face...



Now, I wish people would see the sidewalks as NO GUM ZONES too and even more NO SPIT ZONES!