Jennifer Anne Kogler

Last week I paid a visit to a school very close to where I grew up (though it didn’t exist when I was there), Pioneer Middle School in Tustin, CA.  I got to hang out with the warm and kindly Carol Moore and the friendly teachers all day, which was a treat.  Carol actually made these buttons for the occasion (collect all three!).

More importantly, though, my mind was blown during the fantastic lunch I had with Pioneer’s book club.  I can’t believe I had never learned how to appropriately eat a cupcake . . . by twisting off the bottom and making it a frosting sandwich.  See:

Though I assumed there was no way cupcakes could be more delicious, I was wrong.  Cupcakes/dessert/my life will never be the same.  Thanks for the tip and the terrific day, Pioneer! -JAK

P.S. Yes, the last two blog post titles have been bad tributes to Willa Cather novels (a couple of my favorites growing up).  It shouldn’t be too hard to figure out which ones.

Before I arrived in San Antonio, I had seen, edited and read my book before, but never really tasted it.  However, thanks to the wonderful book club at Harris Middle School, I got the opportunity.  One of the mothers of the book club there made cookies with my book covers on them.  Amazing.  You can see above that I couldn’t wait to take a picture before I took a bite out of The Death Catchers.  The intrepid librarian, Rae Downen, runs a parent/student book club that put on a breakfast for me, and it was a wonderful morning.

That afternoon I headed to Clear Spring Elementary, where the lovely Michele DuBois hosted me as I spoke to a room full of enthusiastic fourth and fifth graders, which was fun.  I don’t get to visit elementary schools very often, so I appreciated their unflagging energy.

The next day I was at Driscoll Middle School in the affable presence of librarian Ellen Hagan.  I was also treated to a delicious lunch with some of the great Driscoll students.

I spent my final day in San Antonio with Teresa Diaz at Eisenhower Middle School.  I knew to expect a fabulous day from Teresa and Eisenhower (or Ike if you prefer) because I had visited there on my last tour.  And I was not disappointed.  The kids who chatted with me during their lunch in the library were as hilarious as they were lively.  Which was very lively indeed.

-JAK

Sure, it rains quite a bit in Seattle (and it did while I was there), but I now firmly believe that it’s a small price to pay for the jaw-dropping vistas that exist pretty much, well, everywhere you look in the Seattle area.  Here is one behind me of the Puget Sound.

Needless to say, I had a great week, which included friends, family and the wonderful people at Third Place Books (especially Rene).  I spoke there on Tuesday.  I never tire of investigating who I wind up on the shelf next to . . . see:

I also went to four schools in the area.  I started out at Redmond Junior High, hosted by the delightful Kendra Friday (who was in the Halloween spirit in an awesome spider costume).  The students had on some great costumes, including a student dressed as a mustard bottle who volunteered to be teleported.  His request?  To go to a backyard barbeque, which was clever enough to make me guffaw in the middle of my talk. Also, they have a pretty spectacular mascot costume, seen below:

On Tuesday, I arrived at Third Place Books early to chat with Bill Kenower from Author Magazine.  The interview is now up online and can be found here: http://www.authormagazine.org/interviews/interview_page_kogler.htm.  Bill is a writer himself, and also an expert interviewer (I forgot it was an interview and thought were just chatting by the end).

After signing and speaking at Third Place Books (seriously one of the best bookstores around – though it’s also so much more than that), I spent Wednesday in the Mukilteo area.  After teaching me how to say “Mukilteo,” musician/media specialist Midge Livingtston showed me around Harbour Point Middle School and entertained my friend Mary (who was nice enough to travel with me during the week) and me for the entire morning.  I had never before met an orchestra teacher turned librarian, but Midge made me wish there were more of them out there.

I spent the afternoon with the winsome Susan Rahkonen at Voyager Middle School and was confused until I found out it was crazy hair day there.  The students were awesome (and asked some pretty darn insightful questions).

My last day was at Evergreen Middle School with Shauna Yusko.  In addition to being a great librarian, Shauna has also runs a charity organization in her free time.  Yup. I agree. Pretty amazing.  Next up, a report from my visit to San Antonio! JAK

Visiting Tampa in late October makes you keenly aware of the reason people settle in Florida.  The average temperature while I was there was about 75 degrees and it was non-stop gorgeous.  I spent my first day at two schools.  The first was Randall with newly transplanted librarian Lowrey Wilson – and let me tell you, Randall is lucky to have Lowrey.  I then hightailed it to the oldest Middle School in Tampa, named after Princeton alum and president Woodrow Wilson (go Tigers!), where Steve Bellis was presiding over his very busy media center with collected aplomb.  Wilson had some pretty amazing mascot murals on its walls (they are the bulldogs) – including this one in, you guessed it, the cafeteria.

The next day I was in Plant City, Florida (which I think wins the award for the best-named town I’ve been to so far) at Tomlin Middle School.  Interesting fact:  Did you know that Plant City is known as the “winter strawberry capital?”  Well it is.  I now will never forget this due to the generosity of Darlene Meginnis, who loaded me up with all sorts of tasty strawberry goodies.  Anyway, Tomlin was fabulous and so was Darlene.

I spoke to very enthusiastic crowds in the impressive gymnasium at Walker Middle School and was in the best of company with reading coach Susan Jaksec and librarian Sara Labarbera.  They even put my name up on the school sign (which always makes me feel much more official and important than I am ).

Then, it was on to my final stop – Martinez Middle School in Lutz.  I went to Martinez last time I was touring and it was one of my favorite stops so it was an absolute pleasure to go back and visit with the wonderful Jeanette Whitman and the staff at Martinez.   I already can’t wait to return.  Next up . . . Seattle.

I’ve fallen behind on my blogging, which is like a travelogue these days because of all the places I’ve been lucky enough to visit on my book tour.  The Denver/Colorado Springs area was certainly one of the prettier spots I’ve been so far – perhaps because Fall had just started showing its yellow and red hued face.  I made my first stop at the appropriately named Evergreen Middle School in Evergreen, CO where I met the charming Debbie Richards.  She presented a pretty convincing case as to why everyone should live in Colorado.  I’m certainly seriously considering it.

It was then on to wonderful Marla Caviness-French’s library at The Manning School.  My jaw hit the floor when I learned that, at The Manning School next semester, each member of one particular class will devote himself or herself to writing a novel.  For me, eighth grade was hard enough without attempting to write a novel, so I was extraordinarily impressed and am very excited to hear how it all turns out.

I ventured down to Colorado Springs, where Dianna Fricke at Challenger Middle School warmly welcomed me.  I spent lunch eating with Challenger’s newly formed Writing Club and soon wished I were a member.  I ended the week at Mountain Ridge Middle School – whose mascot I learned is the grizzly bear, even though there are no grizzlies currently in Colorado.  The awesome Cristen Hardin has a knack for interior design (needless to say, her library was extraordinarily cozy) and was nice enough to point me in the direction of Garden of the Gods (which is where I took the pictures below with the amazing fall colors).  If you’re ever in the Colorado Springs area, run, don’t walk, to the Garden of the Gods.  Actually, maybe just drive because you can do a cool loop in your car, complete with handy signs indicating where you can (and should) stop to take a snapshot.  Here are a couple that I took: