Henry Cole is in the house!

One of our favorite illustrators is Henry Cole!  He has visited Chets Creek several times before, but this group of first graders heard him for the first time today!  He was delightful!  He always tells a story with lots of motions, action and voices and today he told the story of a birthday present that his mother put on the top shelf of a closet.  He kept trying to sneak it down but she always caught him until the last time when she said, "Happy Birthday!"  Henry has illustrated almost 100 books!  He brought his new wordless book on this trip, called Unspoken.  It's a little heavy for our youngest readers - about the Underground Railroad, but I understand that it is being rumored to be up for the Caldecott Award!

After entertaining us with a story, Henry drew in front of the kids.  They were mesmerized.  He talked about just using plain paper and black crayons and a black marker.  He likes to draw with music so first he drew an animated dragon with a bugle to uplifting music and then he drew sweet Celeste (a mouse from Celeste to softer music.  The thing I so love about Henry is that he makes the children believe that they can be illustrators too!

After we got back to the room, we read several of Henry's books that have been Chets Creek Books-of-the-month.  The children loved each one.  We will read some more of his books tomorrow.  The books will be on sale later this week.