I remember wondering about authors... now, no one needs to!

I have OVER 65,000 blogviews presently on this blog, with 48 "followers", which means a lot of invisible people reading my goofy posts and I say thank you to each of you!

A teacher recently said something to me after an assembly I did in a school which stuck to me.  She said, "It is so nice for the kids... and us... to see a real person behind the books.  I often wonder who children imagine when they think of the people who wrote the books they are reading."  "Hmmm, me too." I thought and wondered if the majority of information they would have about an author would come from the little description on the jacket flaps or if they would search the internet to understand more about the creator of the story they just spent time in.

I recently spent a few hours with Avi http://avi-writer.com/, with 54,800, 000 google hits, that's five times as many as Dr. Seuss, WOW! He is a respected, Newbery winning author and as we chatted, I tried to piece together the books I have read by him with the person he is "in person".  Two different things.  He writes about a wide range of topics and he is a "normal" human being with an incredible way of telling stories.  I would rather have that first hand view of him than an internet POV.

So, I started looking at the "footprints" authors I read and have read leave behind now that so many people get their information off the internet.  Generally speaking you would think the majority of the information we could glean from an author would be in the books he or she has written, but there is SO much to find on the WORLD WIDE WEB, Thank you for that Mr. Al Gore.

I remember really respecting Wilson Rawls, Where the Red Fern Grows, when I was a kid for creating a story that sucked me and made me feel as thought I had been a part of the book the whole time I was turning pages. There are 612,000 google results when his name is searched, even though he died before the internet was invented, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilson_Rawls, that is if you can believe Wikipedia, which is really one of the most unreliable sites on the internet by the way.   I remember wondering about Dr. Seuss (11,500.000 google results) (http://www.seussville.com/) when I was a kid. SO much imagination! SO many great stories! SO COOL he must be.  I never remember reading anything other than their books.

NOWADAYS authors (self included) are remarking, blogging, LIKING, tweeting every little thought that crosses his or her mind.  The mystery is no more.  It is both good and bad I suppose.  The inner workings of an author's mind, the way he or she comes up with creative stuff that delights can now be viewed daily.  I follow some authors on twitter and know their snacking habits, pet peeves, imaginations gone awry, debacles of relationships, political persuasions, you name it it is out there!  The one thing to remember though, is, if it is not in an author's book with his or her name on it, it might be suspect.  There are twitter tweeters who pretend to be the likes of J.K. Rowling, Neil Gaiman and other celebrity authors and they are tweeting things that are supposedly written by the authentic person.

As I think of the footprints I leave on the World Wide Web, I think there is entirely too much information out there and much of it at my own doing! I must count not one, not two, but three Facebook pages that I contribute to, one "personal" and one "fan page" and one book club: (https://www.facebook.com/justin.matott & https://www.facebook.com/MatottBooks or the Facebook Virtual Book club I host, https://www.facebook.com/groups/190852800976831/   A twitter account https://twitter.com/justinmatott.  A website: www.justinmatott.com. This blog: http://justinmatott-snickers.blogspot.com/.  Another blog for schools http://justinmatottatyourskul.blogspot.com/.  Much on amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=justin+matott many entries and review on http://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=justin+matott, A blog amalgamater called Storylane http://www.storylane.com/justinmatott, but NO PINTEREST.  Come on, a guys got to draw the line somewhere... wait, my assistant has a Pinterest account that she has put up information about my books on.

I am an internet rookie as compared to these other mentioned illustrious authors and they really had very little to do with it.  A simple google of my name shows 15, 400 entries, 364 image results (the vast majority having nothing to do with me), 3 videos (one of which has nothing to do with me), and a map that actually takes you to Matoto, Guinea, . 

One thing to keep in mind is the internet's reliability, or actually the lack thereof.  Don't believe everything you read or see on the internet and don't assume it really comes from the author you follow or admire, unless it is on his or her personal blog and or website.

The proof of this are the pictures included on this blog post.  Each of them come up when you put my name in google and select images.  I promise you, I had nothing to do with any of them.  I don't know why the colorful queen is associated to me.  I don't where the gold dome palace is.  I used to read Winnie the Pooh books to my boys and on occasion called one of them Eeyore when he was being grumpy and I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA who the shirtless guy is. 

So there you have it.  There is a ton of information available about authors on the internet, but the very best information FROM them is contained in their books.

My conclusion; read the books, enjoy the books, sometimes a little mystery is a good thing!

That Was Then... This Is Now

I was privileged to visit the delightfully treed, copiously gardened, wonderfully architectured, hidden away gem called CA (Colorado Academy) for two days this week to meet, greet and teach kiddoes from itty bitty Pre-K's (My gosh tiny human beings are cute!) up to fifth graders.

The first day was full of assemblies, storytelling and workshops and the second day was full of creative writing workshops with excited, involved, engaged and FUN students!

I love the energy children bring to writing! It is SO much fun to work with their ideas of WHO, WHERE, WHEN, WHY and WHAT and to mold it into a fun picture book stories while they buzz about the room coming up with VERBS that will activate the sentences and story!  There is nothing more refreshing that seeing something appear out of a child's imagination and then to see it bloom and flourish into a story someone might actually want to read in a book!  Magical this job of mine!

FIVE years ago I visited CA for the first time and wished I could go back to school.

It was a beautiful Autumn day and we all decided to do some pictures.  I took a picture with the little children pictured and was presented with a great photograph to remember the day by.  

As I was going through my bulging school files over the summer I came across this picture and thought it would be fun for the folks at CA to see the kids as they were "back in the day" and my host, the AWESOME Allison Peters (librarian), set out to find them to take another picture.  Only one was not at the school any longer.  
 

SO, that was then... 

This is NOW! 

I would say for the first time in a photograph in a long time, I am the least changed of all.  That is a nice thing when the days, weeks, months and years seem to slip by.

Perhaps I'll catch up with them again in five years when they are in their last year at CA.  Now that will be some picture, huh?

WONDER

I have spent the past ten years visiting schools and often talking about bullying, hazing and character issues and how it relates to some of my own childhood experiences, those of my son and the content of my GP series of books.  I am often asked by teachers for books that would be great read-alouds and I am very careful to recommend books that will bring forth great discussion, compassion and empathy for those different from onself.  As with the main character of WONDER, I can NEVER understand how people can be so cruel as to make and already difficult situation more difficult.   

Wonder is a book told from multiple perspectives about a ten year old boy who is dealing with the perfect storm of genetic facial issues who enters into the scary world of public school for the first time in fifth grade. Having been cocooned for his whole life in the nest of loving parents, an understanding and for the most part empathetic older sister and a loving dog, Daisy, he must now go out into the CRUEL world and find out if he can make it against the odds.  

You will find yourself championing August "Augie" as he encounters wonderful people (Summer, one of my favorite characters) and will weed through betrayal and outright bullies (my least favorite characters).

I don't want to spoil the story in any way, but I will tell you half way through I said aloud, "I sure hope this DEBUT WRITER knows how to end this well.  I don't want to invest in this book both time wise and emotionally to be let down.  I assure you, there is NO let down.

I predict this DEBUT WRITER has penned a Newbery. 

I have had readers come to my book signings and thank me for including them in my books.  Primarily those with speech impediments, I can only imagine how this lovely little girl felt when she knew she was represented with such aplomb, dignity and character.  BRAVO Ms. Palacio, BRAVO!