Hi Everyone!

NYC Fall 2010

Spiderman sighting in Central Park

Happy Thanksgiving from New York City, where we’ve just finished our second whirlwind book tour, this time for ANOTHER PAN, the Second of Another Series. After last year’s insanity (which you can read about here), we decided that this year we would stay within the New York tri-state area over a two week period, and would do mostly school visits, which for us proved to be the most fun part of touring last year.  Since Another Series is all about retelling classic works in a modern New York, we decided to focus our talk on writing, retelling, and specifically on Peter Pan, which is the inspiration for our second book.  As always, it was tremendous fun to hang out with students, hear about their writing and creative projects, and to write a story together (which we did with every school!)

After a brief Spiderman sighting in Central Park, we grabbed our extra strong, extra sweet cups of latte and headed to Connecticut, where the fall foliage was just coming to a beautiful end.  It took about five seconds in the car before the trauma of last year’s beef jerky tour hit us and Daniel started making the little noises again.  Thankfully, we are both now well-versed enough in the ways of the sibling road-trip to know to bring plenty of junk food. Not only was the car full of it, but we also stopped at one of the most amazing burger joints ever, for a paper bag full of salty, greasy fries.  Of course, as a resident of Amsterdam, Dina knows her fries, but a whole paper bag full?  God Bless America!

In  New York and New Jersey we visited some of our favorite schools from last year, and many new ones too!  Over the course of the dozen or so schools that we visited, we met some amazing librarians and teachers, and thousands of students across three states in grades ranging from 8th to 12th.  It was truly a rewarding and fun experience.  But the best part was the activity we incorporated in our speech this year, called “Write your own Novel proposal.”   At the end of every speech, we gave the kids an opportunity to come up with themes, characters, and situations for their own novel. Then we turned these ideas into a “back cover paragraph” right there, so that they can see how stories are formed.  Frankly, we were amazed by some of the creative ideas that came out of this. Here are three examples:

1) There was the story about a girl who wants to be a dancing pediatrician on Broadway, who ends up breaking her leg and missing the prom.

2) There was the papaya salesman trying to find true love in a zombie wasteland who finally finds his soulmate (a coconut saleswoman), just as he discovers that his mother is the zombie queen.

3)  There was the story of Snuff, the invisible boy who is in love with a visible girl. Unfortunately, her boyfriend, Juan, is the only person who can see him, and the only person who has the cure for invisibility. Of course, Juan uses this fact to blackmail Snuff. Until one day, a mysterious accident leaves the whole town wondering how Juan could have been killed by a driver-less car. When his girlfriend attends the funeral, she meets one of Juan’s old friends. He introduces himself as Snuff.

WOW!! How awesome is that? Kids, if you’re reading this, YOU ROCKED IT!

“It was an amazing experience and so many things I had been wondering about had been covered. I’ve always loved reading and when Another Pan came out, I was ecstatic because Peter Pan was one of my favorite stories and a rendition in a modern setting was sure to be interesting and it was. My friends thought it was strange when I liked Tina the most, but it was because of the contrast to the original Tinker Bell that I loved her.  I can’t wait for Another Jekyll because that would also be a story I would love.  I think I’d love to see a rendition of Alice in Wonderland because it would be quite interesting to see that in a modern setting.   I hadn’t been too sure what to expect when I first heard about you both coming to our school. After your visit, the kids in my class couldn’t stop talking about it.  You were so relatable and the fun interactive group activity was great! It helped me think as a writer and I felt as if I was actually writing it on my own. Thank you for allowing me to feel like I was a writer and increasing my love of reading and writing even more.  I can’t wait to read your next book.”

“I would like to thank you for coming to talk about the book you have written and for giving us more knowledge about the pros and cons of the writing career.  Daniel’s sense of humor made of all of become engaged during your visit and Dina’s comments on her own experiences helped us better understand the steps of writing a book that everyone will desire to read. Your presentation has provided a valuable educational experience for everyone.”