Yesterday was another one of those days that I realized how awesome my job is. (It's good to remember those days in the middle of MAP or PARCC testing or when I'm overwhelmed by work!) I had an amazing author visit with Aaron Reynolds! He is probably tied with Henry Cole as the most energetic and engaging author/illustrator visit I have ever seen. He was goofy and keep the kids interested and learning. Everyone, teachers included, loved the book Nerdy Birdy and we completely sold out of it.
That evening I went to see Brian Selznick at the Tivoli movie theater, which was built in the 1920s. It couldn't have been a more perfect setting for Brian Selznick's presentation about The Marvels, which follows five generations of a family of actors, as well as his stories about all his books and the making of the movie Hugo. Each of Brian Selznick's recent books he created took about 3-4 years for him to make, and as he showed us some of his process, it is easy to see why. He sketches the whole story out in a miniature storyboard, assembles the tiny pictures into little books for each scene, researches, edits, and revises and then spends over a year actually drawing (that's a lot of cross-hatching). The research he did for The Marvels included moving to London for a few months, becoming friends with the person in charge of the Dennis Severs House as well as the Theatre Royal Haymarket, on which the Royal Theatre in The Marvels is based. He even got a dog from a shelter to model for the dog Tar in the story. Additionally, Brian spent a few months making an incredible stop-motion/puppet-style trailer for The Marvels, which can be seen on his The Marvels website. 
P.S. I'd love to hear what you thought of The Marvels in the comments!
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