Skyping with Jon Klassen

We have been reading and rereading books written and illustrated by Jon Klassen this year.

We have read them all but our favorite is I Want My Hat Back.  In fact, we liked it so much that we started writing our own versions of the book. We have versions about basketballs, sandwiches, snakes, cats, and scarves. Some of the students are both author and illustrator, while others work together as an author and an illustrator.

After seeing all of this writing and the brilliant creativity of the students, I decided to use Twitter to connect with Jon Klassen and show him some of our own versions of his book. I told him that his writing has inspired many new versions in our classroom.

Unexpectedly, Jon Klassen wrote back!

 To say the least, we were thrilled!

The conversation continued...

 After this picture, we did not hear back for awhile. In fact, we gave up the thought of skyping with him (we know how busy authors are!)

However, one day right before lunch I got a call from our "tech lady" who said that she had been communicating with Jon Klassen and that he would be willing to skype with us in an hour!  The kids did not find out until about 15 minutes before that we would be talking with him.

We had a list of questions for him, so at least we were a bit prepared.  But, we were all excited and nervous to meet someone whom we look up to so much!

He showed us some of his favorite books from his childhood (Robert the Rose Horse and Sam and the Firefly).

He talked about how he gets his ideas for writing (by what he likes to draw or by one simple idea). 

He told us about what he's working on now (a book coming out next fall...not soon enough!) and he does some work for DreamWorks every once in awhile.

He told us what his favorite things are to draw (rocks and chairs), and then showed us how he draws turtles and crabs.

And we met his cat, Pigeon, and saw his view of Los Angeles from his patio (so glamorous compared to Kansas!.

I know we were all starstruck and in awe of meeting someone whom we enjoy so much!