From October 6 to November 5, Deanna and I visited with students, librarians, and parents in portions of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Everyone we met was as happy to see us as we were to see them. We made new friends and met over 9,645 children from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade. 21 schools and five libraries participated. I did 43 hour long presentations and on one weekend break, I participated in a two day teacher’s seminar on teaching conservation – Natural history, journal writing, and sketching outdoors – with my old friend Jim Brett. The seminar took us back to Hawk Mountain in Pennsylvania, where Deanna and I started out in a one room cabin in the woods. It was a very sweet and happy visit and brought back many memories of the times I just began making books for children and when I first began drawing Crinkleroot. Our school visits began in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, at the Reynolds School. Kindergarten through 2nd graders sang Crinkleroot’s song with me and listened while I told stories of Deanna and our adventures in the wild. During a break we toured the school’s brand new courtyard which will soon be a place wild birds and butterflies will flock to.

                                

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