This past week, I had the honor to visit a nearby school along with picture- and chapter-book author Frieda Wishinsky. Frieda is both a former teacher and a wonderful and engaging person, so I was looking forward to getting a chance to see her present to 4 groups of kindergarten and grade 1 students. I wasn't disappointed.
When I sneaked into the room (having just finished my own presentation with the grade 2s), Frieda was in the process of turning the grade 1 teacher into a baby! She had the teacher act out the part of the crying newbie in her first picture book, Oonga Boonga.
In the story, nothing stops the baby from crying except her older brother saying the nonsense phrase, "Oonga Boonga!" You can see what happens as the kids shout out the words. The teacher's face shows their success. Frieda kept the kids rapt for the entire presentation.
The highlight, of the day for me, was when she had the kids themselves act out the story of Please Louise, her current bestseller. (And one of my favorites, since it's got the most adorable illos by Marie-Louise Gay - I'm VERY partial to the dog in this book!!) Again, her technique was to get participants to act out parts from the book - the older brother, the younger ANNOYING younger sister (she wore a button that read, in large letters, "Annoying") and the dog. To make their acting jobs easier, Frieda used a magic wand to "poof" them into the story. You can see how seriously the big brother "Jake" took this magic. 
I learned a lot from watching Frieda in action. I bet these lucky kids did too.
(Psst...my own presentations went pretty well too!)
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