Maureen Bush

Contest Closing

The contest for howweirdcanyouget.com closes on May 1.

Griffith the wizard is looking for magical ideas to develop for his store – if you have a good one, send it in. Lots of great ideas have arrived, but he’s always looking for more.

He’s a little disappointed he hasn’t received any entries from adults. Only kids can win, but he likes to see what craziness adults come up with, too.

Maureen

Piikani Nation

Thursday I was in Brocket, working with kids from nursery school to grade 7, talking about stories and writing. Brocket is in a stunningly beautiful location, just east of Pincher Creek, hills and river valley overlooked by the snow-covered Rocky Mountains (it was just hazy enough for the photos to not turn out).

I was shown all the projects the kids had worked on as they read Feather Brain: big paper maché dinosaurs and tiny clay ones, drawings and paintings, and booklets with chapter summaries and drawings that I got to sign.

I was sent away with two gifts: a Piikani Nation T-shirt, and a lovely hand-beaded leather barrette, which made my younger daughter very happy when I gave them to her.

Maureen

Alien Triplets

I spent Thursday in Coaldale at Jenny Emery School, taking part in their One School One Book program, where all the kids are read Feather Brain (at home, so families are involved, too). I loved the enthusiasm at the school – they loved the book, and were excited to meet me. This is a kids’ writer’s moment of fame – meeting all those great kids.

I usually create a story with the kids; here, because the groups were large, we’d agreed to start a story collectively and then let the kids continue on paper. But I missed the wildness of creating a story together, so, for the last class, the grade fours, I decided to go for it. We leapt into it, discovering that one of the boys in the group was an alien in disguise, on earth to find a power source buried under the school. The boy was volunteered by another, soon revealed to be his brother. Then I discovered there was a third brother, so naturally we had to have alien triplets. I couldn’t have asked for a better set up for a story.

Owlets

Saturday morning I got to visit with the kids in the Owlets Book Club, at The Owl’s Nest Books http://owlsnestbooks.com/. The kids oohed over the length of the manuscript and the oddity of seeing a bookcover without the book, and were a little weirded out by the spirit man. They had great questions about Feather Brain, and particularly liked it because it’s about dinosaurs, and takes place in Calgary. I’m hoping from some great contest entries from them.

I received a gift card as a thank you, and immediately spent it. I love a good book store!

Maureen

Contest

After a couple years without, I’m holding another contest for my website www.howweirdcanyouget.com. Several schools in Lethbridge are using Feather Brain for a One School One Book program, and I wanted them to be able to send in entries, plus I’ll be at several other schools that might want to participate.

The rules? Anyone can submit, but only kids can win. Send in an idea for a magic spell for Griffith the wizard to work on. He’ll chose his favorite, and send the winner a small leather-bound notebook for their own spells, and a signed copy of Feather Brain (or another book if the winner already owns Feather Brain).

Past winners and honourable mentions can be found on the website, if you want to see the awesome ideas kids have sent in previously.

The contest will be open until May 1, 2012.

Maureen