School Visit – Lincoln Elementary
Thanks to the organizing and kindness of Aspire Education in Oakland who provide tutoring, mentoring, and support to public school students in the Bay Area I was able to read to Lincoln Elementary. All photos by Beau Tindle.
Lincoln is smack dab in the middle of Oakland’s Chinatown and has a predominantly AAPI student body, but a lot of families from different backgrounds are mixed in there.
Staff from Community Reading Buddies and Aspire provided information and resources for the family, pizza, salad, cookies, and snacks, and free books!
As families started to pour in and get ready for me to read I began getting my daughter and my presentation set up.
I began reading “Fresh juice” published by Lee & Low Books to the little kids, tweens, and parents and found everyone super engaged, responsive, and curious.
There were several copies of the book given away that evening and many folks followed along with me as I read the story. I’ve read a hundred times but its still fun to engage the audience with details from their life experience like taking public transportation, going to farmer’s markets, or the kinds of fruits and veggies we eat at home or school.
After I read the book I got to share a little bit of the art process as I often do. I walked around showing my sketchbook as well. While it is nice to get ooh’s and ahhh’s from young people seeing your drawings, I don’t remember ever meeting an author or illustrator in school as a shorty. The work organizations like Aspire Education do is vital, for inspiration and academic success. So, I hope that some of them will be inspired to draw or write for books.
If you haven’t read “Fresh Juice” you can watch and listen to a reading HERE by actor Da’Vine Joy Randolph courtesy of Storyline Online and SAG Aftra Foundation.
One of the coolest things about my job by far is meeting young people who are not just artists, writers, change makers, etc but literally the future. This one was super fun too. If you’d like to invite me to come visit your school or library, check my contact page and hit me up.
Dig this? Check out these other school or library visits:
- Alvarado Elementary – Union City, CA
- Sacajawea Elementary – Seattle, WA
- Black Pine School – Berkeley, CA
- Texas Book Festival – Austin, TX
