Amazing Animals - an amazing book!

YOU ARE INVITED!
To the launch of my newest book: Amazing Animals, The Remarkable Things Creatures Do. Published by Tundra and illustrated by W. Allan Hancock.
The launch takes place on Saturday March 12, 2 PM at ArtSpring on Salt Spring Island.
Join us if you can! Or order the book at your local bookstore.

Bring the World to your Classroom

If you are a teacher or a librarian, you might like to participate in my global bookmark exchange. Simply email me the number of children participating and I will link you to a group elsewhere in the world. Thousands of students in over 30 countries have already sent each other handmade bookmarks. On it they write one sentence (in English and in any other language they may speak) about their favorite book!
Have fun, share books, be creative and learn about the world!

School Visits in Shanghai

After 3 weeks of author presentations to international schools in Shanghai, I am home again. It was wonderful to see so many keen readers in China. The children and teachers were fabulous.
Now I'm looking forward to Christmas on Salt Spring.
Best wishes to you all! May 2011 be filled with good books!

Skype Author Visits

The current issue of Canadian Teacher magazine has an article in it which I wrote about author visits via Skype. If your school is interested in hosting such a visit, be sure to read it!
Go to: http://www.canadianteachermagazine.com/currentissue.shtml
Then scroll down to 'teaching with technology' and click on 'Using Skype to Bring Experts into the Classroom.

Eric Walters Creates Hope in Kenya

My colleague Eric Walters has been working very hard to build a place in Kenya for children to live and to learn. Check out his website: www.creationofhope.com to see how your school can help.

Here some of the students are using my book, along with hundreds of other books in the brand new library Eric has built for them!

Japanese edition of My Librarian is a Camel!

Today I received a Japanese version of my book My Librarian is a Camel! It is fun to see the book in a language I can't read.
I hope children in Japan will have fun learning about these unique mobile libraries around the world.

My School Book: Highlighted at Smithonian Blog

Just got word that the book blog of the Smithonian is highlighting My School in the Rain Forest. Have a look here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Margriet-Ruurs-Writer/394173124831?ref=ts

Sharing Books in Mongolia

I just resurfaced after six weeks in Asia working at international schools. I spent 2 weeks in Mongolia. We had an amazing time with my friend and colleague Dashdondog - a renowned Mongolian children's writer. He took us on a trip into the Gobi Desert. We shared stories, poems and books with children in many schools, in very remote places. I got to milk and ride a camel! We visited nomad families and drank camel milk tea in gers.
I loved seeing how much people in Mongolia value poetry. All children were able to recite poems, especially the works of Dashdondog whose writing is known to all people across the country.

The power of reading

After a fun week of readings and writing workshops in school across Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia I am now in Singapore. Just had a lovely brunch with teacher/librarians in whose school I will be this coming week. Of course we talked about... books! Here's an inspiring article about the power of reading aloud, sharing books:
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1790000379/post/1190052519.html

Hope you try it, too!

International Schools

After a week in schools in South Korea I am now doing author presentations, writing workshops and staff workshops in schools in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I love the heat and soak it all up. What a privilege to see wonderful places and work with great kids. The schools place great emphasize on their libraries. Teachers, by and large, work with books and read to the students.
International schools mostly have well stocked bookshelves. Many students speak more than one language. In fact, it's not called ESL (English as a Second Language) here but rather EAL (English as an Additional Language). The other day I asked students how many of them spoke a second language. Not many raised their hand even though I knew that spoke more than one language. Then I realized I should have asked "how many of you speak at least two language" and they all raised their hands.
I'm sure that brings its own challenges for teachers but books are valued and used throughout the schools and the curriculum.