Susan Mitchell in Ontario

For my part of Book Week, I toured Ontario, visiting schools and libraries around St.Catharine’s, Brampton, Brantford and Toronto. It was such a great experience. All the kids and staff I met were so enthusiastic, and made me feel very welcome and special. One boy even put up his hand just to tell me: “You look nice.”

I learned so much on this tour. For instance, kindergartners find it hard to pose questions. When I would ask them if they had any, they would respond with telling me what their favourite colour was, their pets’ names and how sta-a-arving they were, but were never able to ask me anything about illustrating books. (I learned lots of interesting things about those kids though!).

Grade Two’s on the other hand had so many questions that often there was no time to read and I had to go straight on to drawing pictures for them.

One of my books, Hugs for Baby, turned out to be particularly fun to share with the kids. It is a lift-the-flap book that makes sounds, so I wasn’t sure what they would think. But not only did every grade love it, but it was great for large groups because even if they couldn’t see all the details in an illustration, they could at least hear the mewing kitten or laughing baby.

Before opening the flaps, I would ask the kids to guess what was behind them. They always had interesting and often hilarious suggestions.

One of my favourite moments was when a Grade Two boy informed me: “When I was little, I thought an illustrator’s job was to make people ill…” I loved that. But hopefully no one felt ill when I shared my books with them! I had a wonderful time meeting the children, teachers and librarians. I would do it again in a heartbeat.