School Visits for Finding My Place (historical fiction, ages 9 to 12)

I had my first official school visit since Finding My Place has come out. (For more info about my book, please see my FINDING MY PLACE page.) I was in Otterville, MO last Monday and Tuesday at the elementary school for Family Reading Night and in the middle school reading class, and then in Sedalia with the Boys and Girls Club after-school program.

First I want to give a BIG THANK YOU! to the students, teachers, and administration at Otterville R-VI School. They made me feel so welcome–almost like a celebrity. The photos you see with this blog post were made by the third through sixth grade students. A group of students created one drawing for each chapter of my book, portraying what happened in that chapter. Then Mrs. Nolting (otherwise known as my good friend Jill) copied them and bound them together to make a book for me. Aren’t these great? Plus the children presented me with drawings and cards. I also want to thank Kimberly and Karen at the Boys and Girls Club in Sedalia for inviting me to come!

Best of all, the Otterville Elementary teachers read Finding My Place to the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade classrooms before I got to the school. The kids knew my story, and they were excited to learn more from me. So excited, that I never even got to my prepared presentation because they had so many questions, including, “Are you going to write a sequel?” or “Why does the mom have to die?” Excellent questions, as a matter of fact.

Even in the Otterville Middle School, where they had not finished my book, but their teacher had prepared them for my arrival, the students were attentive and had a lot of questions about writing and publishing. The same was true in Sedalia with the Boys and Girls Club after-school program. Of course, all the students, from kindergarten to eighth grade, liked to hear about how the citizens of Vicksburg had to eat rats and live in caves to survive. It’s a real-life adventure story!

Thank you students in Otterville and Sedalia for making my first school visit a huge success. Thank you for giving me even more reasons to be thankful on Thanksgiving. If you are an author reading this post and have questions about school visits, please feel free to leave a comment here or email me at margo (at) margodill.com. If you are a parent or teacher and are interested in having me come speak, you can contact me at the same email address.

Happy reading, everyone! Enjoy the illustrations by the Otterville Elementary students!