POTATO PANTS

She said I was the best dressed there.  A bit of an exaggeration but I still shared that with my friend who was with me when I bought the dress. Because of that, I stared at my wardrobe for a long time.  "How would the 'best dressed' dress to school?"  In the end, I chose a new dress that said friend from above picked out, leggings, a scarf and denim jacket.  Oh yeah, and my signature red high top chucks.

Today was our Skype visit with Laurie Keller.  LAURIE KELLER! She's HUGE! I was nervous and excited!

Every third grader was asked to bring in a potato to draw some pants on it. FUN!

We've been talking so much about author purpose, it was refreshing to ask that question and have them all say in unison, "make us laugh." Exactly.  And laugh we all did.

First I read the book aloud and then we called Laurie.

Some fun facts we learned about Laurie:

• Laurie loves drawing with markers.  In fact, on her favorite page of the book she used markers to draw all the potatoes running into the store.  I think she's the first illustrator we've met who uses markers.  

• French fries, baked potatoes, mashed potatoes...She loves them all but fries are her favorite way, hands down.  Steak or shoestring? We forgot to ask!
• Red has always been Laurie's favorite color but now she is entering an orange phase. What could that mean?
• I had read in Book Page that Laurie did not know how to fold a fitted sheet.  Mrs. Warland to the rescue! This morning, she gave Laurie (and all of us) a step by step lesson at the conclusion of our Skype.
  
• There is no plan for a sequel but Mrs. Warland had a great idea if there is one--Potato needs glasses because he has EYES! That Mrs. Warland is a clever one! 

Last night I pulled out our Scrambled States of America game to bring to school.  I love that game!  And right there in the small print, "based on the book by Laurie Keller."  How cool is that? 

Well, I'd say we are well on our way to gathering some good information about Laurie for when she visits Castleton ;-)We even have a head start on our meal for "dinner at Doe's."

Thanks, Laurie, for a great Skype.  We laughed. We drew pants on potatoes and we even threw in some home economics skills.  I just hope I didn't disappoint in the fashion area,

PS-Thank you Lucy and the crew at Macmillan for seating me in between Laurie and her editor, Christy Ottaviano, at the Caldecott-Newbery banquet.  If that had never happened, today wouldn't have happened.

Laurie showing us her favorite page

Our Leap!