This was fun! Thank you to an amazing librarian, Mr. Chang, for the photo.

Imagine! A school with a FULL-TIME, capital L, Librarian. To celebrate!

Here I’m sharing the genesis of so many stories… using a journal, even a visual journal. In this case, I’ve created one with a home-made “flip book.”

When I was young, every school had a full-time librarian. They tended to stay at the school for a long time, enough to know the learners, and to know what books would meet their needs and surprise them in the best ways. We took this for granted then. (THANK YOU, Mrs. Campbell! And for letting me be a library monitor!)

I shared this day with grades 6 and 7s. I read from my now-old The Half-pipe Kidd. It’s so dated now, with not a cell phone in sight, but I enjoyed it, and the kids seemed to as well–even better.

A number of the boys came up afterward to show me the graphic novels they’re working on, some projects now a year’s worth of work, with a special kit so they can work outside…

Love it!

• How to make a flip-book:

Fold a large piece of paper into 16 squares. Then cut like this:

So 16 squares, with the cuts, 3/4 of the way through, up, down, and up.

Then fold, turning corners as you go. If you write and draw on both sides of the 16 squares, you have 32. Which creates a “journal” for a month–31 days and a cover to fold over.

Have fun!