Last Fri­day illus­tra­tor Hari­nani Orme and I had the coolest school vis­it! Maha­lo to Pearl Ridge Ele­men­tary school librar­i­an Lori Tona­ki for invit­ing us to share the book with the school’s four class­es of fourth graders. The stu­dents were the per­fect audi­ence — atten­tive and  curi­ous. Librar­i­ans have always been my heroes, and Ms. Tona­ki is the kind of cre­ative and sup­port­ive school librar­i­an every child deserves.

What a bunch of aka­mai kids! They asked the best, most thought­ful ques­tions — like why I like to write non-fic­tion and what the hard­est thing about being a writer is. They asked Hari­nani when she knew she want­ed to be an artist and what inspires her to cre­ate her illus­tra­tions. It was so fun for us to inter­act with these bright, thought­ful students.

We hand­ed out col­or­ing pages (maha­lo, Hari!) and book­marks to thank the kids for being with us that day. 

Please enjoy these pho­tos of the event. We took so many more pho­tos with the kids, but I’m just includ­ing just a cou­ple for you here (to pro­tect the their pri­va­cy.) Aloha!

Pho­to cred­it: Lori Tonaki