Ruby and myself in visit India! As the summer turns to fall and school begins again, I am filled with warm memories of my visit to two extraordinary schools in India last year. I visited the American School of Bombay in Mumbai and the American International School in Chennai, with my daughter, Ruby Smith, a dancer and choreographer. We had collaborated with writing, illustrating, and dance very successfully in a residency at the American School of Paris two years before and were eager to work together again.  Movement, writing, and illustrating go together very well with surprising outcomes in the classrooms! Large group presentation with a story beginning with my favorite picture books as a child. Ruby and I began each weeklong residency with large group presentations. I used slides to share my process of creating picture books and ended with reading of my book, WHEN STRAVINSKY MET NIJINSKY narrated with music. Ruby shared her story of becoming a dancer/choreographer, then led the audience of all ages in a brief modern dance demonstration-- a good way to stretch out the kinks after sitting for 45 minutes! Showing the process of illustrating my book, DEER DANCER, after writing a group poem with kindergartners. Coloring deer masks, inspired by my book, DEER DANCER. When working with very young readers and writers, I often do group brainstorming and then a group poem. We makes lists of movement words or verbs, seasons, animals, plants, colors and then write a poem together. When Ruby visited the classroom after me, the group poem and colored masks were used to create a dance inspired by words and images. Choreographer Ruby Smith brings the deer dance and group poem to life with deer masks. Sightseeing in Mumbai with extraordinary teachers, authors, and dancers! At AISC students work on storyboards to create the flow of illustrations for their stories. My own picture books were available for inspiration. Gathering in groups to help and inspire one another in book-making was remarkable at AISC. At AISC, I was given a large room to meet with each grade, several times each. The first session was leading writing exercises to create a poem that could be turned into a six page picture book. Storyboards were used to begin to paginate and create the "drama of the turning page" with each students words used for their text. 

Our second meeting was turning the words and storyboards into the picture book. Students worked in groups on the floor-- it was an exciting and amazing project. So much excitement grew out of turning words into picture books! I presented teacher's workshops too at AISC- here an origami-poetry writing workshop. Dinner out in Chennai with librarian extraordinaire, Jeremy Willette and incredible teacher, Megan McCrindle. What an amazing school. What an amazing time! I hope to visit India again. And I hope to collaborate with Ruby again. Writing and illustrating books no longer feels complete without movement!