Madisonia Blog

This morning I read Velma Gratch and the Way cool Butterfly and The Littlest Grape Stomper at Trinity School on the Upper West side of Manhattan. The school is beautiful and the kids wonderful. It was a first grade – and one of the little girls, Morgan, was my favorite – she had all sorts of wonderful questions about the book and what Iw as gong to do next. I asked for a little help from the kids on what Velma should do next. There was a lot of children who thought Velma should go to outer space. I tend to agree!!

letter.pdfletter-pg-2.pdf

I want to thank all the girls from Ms. Chynsky’s class at Brearly for their wonderful letters. They made me feel really good. I am going to try and post some on the blog so everyone can see.

Today is a snow day here in the city. All the schools are canceled which is both happy and sad. Happy that I can go sledding. Sad that I won’t see all my friends at school!! I am going to go get my sled from the basement, bundle up and head to the park. I hope I see some of you there!!

Thanks Pam for telling me about winning the Monarch award for Illinois K-3 Children’s Choice Award. That kids voted it best makes it doubly great for me. It had to win the Monarch award – how many books are out there about Monarch butterflies!!

Also thank you to the wonderful children in Ms. Chynsky’s class (that’s right there are no vowels in her last name – cool!) who sent me all those wonderful thank you notes for my reading at their school. I had a wonderful time. I am going to post some of the letters on my website.

Today I went to Brearly School on the Upper Eastside of Manhattan. The teachers there Rebecca and Anika are reading their two 2nd grade classes 100 Days and 99 Nights. The kids really are loving it. One of the students, Zoe, came up to me after and said, “Mr. Madison, you are a really good writer.” See! See how smart Brearly girls are!! I gave a creative writing lecture to two classes. They were very smart and a lot of fun. I look forward to my next one.

Velma Gratch and the Way Cool Butterfly has been nominated for the Virginia Readers’ Choice list for the 2009-2010 school year! That is so exciting for me. Now Velma has been honored in Maine, Maryland and California. My favorite part of this nomination is that Virginia and Velma start with the same letter. Maybe in the future I could write Velma Visits Virginia as one of her adVentures. V is for Victory. This is a great early holiday present for me. What do you think Velma should get for the holidays?

I had a great time reading Velma Gratch to grades 1-4 at Brearly School on the upper Eastside of Manhattan. The girls had great questions and several good ideas for the next Velma. One of the best things that they did as an activity was to create butterflies out of tissue paper and then tie them to their fingers with pipe cleaners. This was very creative! I hope to back there to read again.

Velma Gratch and the Way Cool Butterfly has been nominated for the 2008 -2009 Young Hoosier Book Award, Currently, close to 1,000 schools (and more than 72,000 kids) participate in this state award program of Indiana. Students across the state will read the nominated titles and select a winner for each category— Primary Grades/Picture Book, Intermediate Grades, and Middle Grades—in May 2009. SO IF YOU KNOW ANYONE IN INDIANA that can read! Pleas tell them to read my book and vote for it. Because I like to win.

What an exciting day. Wouldn’t t be way cool if one day I was nominated for the Hawaii Book Award!!

With my two nice nieces and one naughty nephew sleeping over we had a great time! This morning we made hats out of construction paper for my dog Lola. (see picture) Then I found out some really Good news! 100 Days and 99 nights received a 2008 National Parenting Publications Honor Award. The 2008 awards aren’t on the Nappa site yet, but for more information on the award, you can visit http://www.parenthood.com/nappa.php.

I got this email today! I love the doll and I think everyone should have one. I think it is brilliant. I can’t wait to see it with the butterfly on it. I think I am going to order one today.

The email follows:

I fell in love with Velma Gratch as soon as I picked up the book at the local library to read to one of my granddaughters.
I love to make dolls and found I just needed to make a doll of Velma. The attachment is the almost finished Velma and I am trying to get a butterfly just right to perch on her head.
Isnt she cute? The big problem is that now my two nieces want one and I was only going to make this one…after all Velma is a one of a kind kid isnt she?
I hope you like her as much as I do. Velma is one of my favorite dolls I have ever made so far.