Reading to my daughter's class

Today I visited my daughter’s school to read Maddie Goes to London.  All 100 children from Year 3 were present!  I started out by asking how many kids had already read the book, half raised their hands, then I asked how many want to read the book and the rest raised their hands.
 
I know my books by heart and they are great fun to read out loud.  My daughter, Eva, was standing next to me.  She was so excited and proud.  While reading, I stopped to glance at the children in front of me, and they were all mesmerised.  
 
The kids asked me the most amazing questions. I was so impressed with their maturity and concentration.  Here are some of their questions:

• Did you write the books on a computer or by hand?
• Where can we buy the books?
• How long did it take you to write them and was it hard?
• What inspired you?
• Will you write more?
• How did you find the illustrator?
• In the next book can Maddie go to a football stadium?
• And can Maddie go to space?
• When did you know you were an author?
• Will you write more books?
• Do you know what the next books will be about?
• What was the hardest part about the process?

And many, many more!  I answered each and every question, and I elaborated most on what was the hardest part.  I told them that it is easy to have a good idea, but the hard part is to start it, to actually do something, then follow through, and keep at it until you are finished.  This takes time, patience, dedication, perseverance, and grit.  The kids were really paying attention and I hope I taught them something of value today.  Many told me that they like to write, and want to become an author, and others told me they want to illustrate books.  This was wonderful to hear.
 
To finish up I suggested a fun activity, I asked them to draw Maddie.  We put Maddie’s cover up on the whiteboard and they started drawing her.  My illustrator has some serious competition! The drawings were fantastic, here are some of them.
 
​One girl asked me why did I write the books.  I answered that I wrote them for her, and for all the kids who will read my books and enjoy them.  I wrote them so kids can laugh a little, learn something about cities around the world, fall in love with my dog Maddie, and in the meantime, have their imagination tweaked.  I hope I have created a series that will inspire kids to be creative themselves.  

Today felt like I did just that and it feels wonderful.