Curtis Parkinson in Saskatchewan

When I picked up my rental car in Regina, I wondered what I had gotten into. Twelve schools, four libraries and 800 kilometers later I’ve learned a lot and, from their response, so have many of the 900-plus students I talked to.

Some of the moments I remember most:

Those kids who stared at me wide-eyed the whole time I was talking. For they were the ones I knew were absorbing what I had to say about writing and about reading.

The principal who followed up my comments about the difference between a movie and a book by asking how many had been disappointed in a movie made from a book they had liked. The hands shot up.

How the girls at one school came up afterwards in a group with a spokesperson to thank me, whereas the boys sidled up singly to mumble their thanks.

Alex, a bright but severely handicapped girl in a wheelchair at the back who I gave a private reading to afterwards and a copy of one of my picture books. Her eyes lit up, she reached out to touch my hand and struggled to say (her teacher-minder interpreted her slurred speech for me) that she would read it to her younger brother and sister that night.

The sign outside a school when I pulled up at 8:30 a.m. welcoming “Curtis Parkinson”. And inside, pictures of the covers of every book I had written – even one long out-of-print which the Grade 5’s had dug up on the internet.

The catch 22 of school visits – the teachers, naturally, want to give as many students as possible the chance to hear a visiting author, yet reading to a group of, say, Grades 4 to 7 can only be a compromise because of the wide differences in levels, whereas a group of, say, Grades 5 to 6 or Grades 7 to 8 works better. It’s quantity or quality. The teachers’ choice I guess.

And finally, the meal of the week when I lucked out and arrived at Cupar School on the day of their monthly staff lunch home-cooked by a staff member. BBQ Saskatchewan pork, lasagna and salad, mmmm…..

Oh yes, and 5 days of sunshine, mild weather and dry roads! Unheard of for November according to Saskatchewanians.