Friday, February 26, 2010

W. Nikola-Lisa Visits My Students!

W.Nikola-Lisa - Author and Storyteller
I want to thank W. Nikola-Lisa, author of over 20 children's books, for coming to speak to my group of teachers this past week. He not only "spoke" to us about his own books and his writing and creative process, but he highly entertained us as he read many children's books - his own and those of others that he likes to share with children.

Rave reviews from all who attended. I must agree - he was very entertaining, had us laughing and singing and chanting along with him and was the perfect "shot in the arm" for my students who are elementary teachers. They appreciated his love of picture books and the fun way in which he shared them and highlighted many ways to use them that would be engaging to children. One teacher told him, "I don't know you, but I know you now through your books."

Here are a few pictures that highlight his dynamic personality! Donning a baseball cap and a rubber pig nose, he is reading The Book of Pigericks: Pig Limericks - written and illustrated by Arnold Lobel. Not only did he resemble a pig, he also incorporated pig snorts to punctuate the reading of the limericks written about pigs. He had us all in stitches. Here Nikola shows us the galley page for his first book, 1, 2, 3 Thanksgiving! and illustrated by Robin Kramer and explains the process of how picture books are produced.

Nikola has many personas he takes on when reading books to children (and in this case, to us, teachers). Here are a few he pulled from his traveling suitcase:


One of my favorite books by Nikola:
To learn more about W. Nikola-Lisa and his books, visit his website: http://www.nikolabooks.com/
and read his blog, "Storytelling Tips for Teachers: An Occasional Blog" at: http://www.nikolabooks.blogspot.com/