Kevin Sylvester in Quebec

How to sum up a whole week spent traveling in a great province, meeting great kids, talking about books, and hearing hundreds of laughs?

AWESOME!

I was honoured to be invited to take part in Book Week 2011, and thrilled to be assigned to Quebec. I have friends who write for adults and I always ask them “why would you do such a thing?” because, for me, kids are such a great audience for authors. The entire week is spent talking with kids from different backgrounds about what they love (and don’t) about Canadian books. Students everywhere from Arundel to Westmount yelled, screamed, laughed, criticized, asked questions and inspired.

By my count I spoke to about 2,000 students over the week. It can be tiring, but in the best way. Teacher after teacher talked about what a thrill it was for the kids to meet a real author/illustrator. It demystifies the book. Kids see that a real person is behind the words and images and maybe it also shows them that any doofus can grow up to creative (I’m using myself as a template here.)

I do a caricature of myself at the beginning of every presentation. I was honoured to see that so many schools plan to laminate them and hang them up in the library. One boy even came up after and asked me if I’d like to see him draw. He went on to very carefully and meticulously draw a picture of painted monster truck, all the time providing play-by-play of the process. Look for him on TD Book Week 2021!

Of course, the Canada Council visits are also amazing, and gave me a chance to meet with both adult and teenage audiences. I think the whole week also helped me grow as an author and presenter. I had to adjust for the audience, and even practice my French! C’etait cool!