Celebrating World Read Aloud Day with Skype Author Calls

To celebrate World Read Aloud Day, we partnered with Lit World and author, Kate Messner, to participate in a range of activities to promote global reading awareness. Thanks to Kate Messner, we were able to sign up to Skype with two authors, Jennifer Thermes and Constance Lombardo for grades 3-5. The Skype calls lasted about 20-30 minutes with Jennifer Thermes, calling from Connecticut and Constance Lombardo calling from North Carolina.  Jennifer Thermes, is the author of a map-illustrator, and author-illustrator of children books including Grandma Gatewood Hikes the Appalachian Trail and Charles Darwin’s Around-the-World Adventure.  Constance Lombardo, is the author-illustrator of the Mr. Puffball series, a series similar to Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Origami Yoda.  The authors read excerpts from their stories, even drew illustrations in real time, answered questions, offered advice on writing and drawing and were just so gracious and kind. Our students heard interesting stories ranging from those etched deep in history (Appalachian Trail, old farmhouse, legends) to comical and whimsical. It was a first for P.S.110 and definitely sparked some interest!