Our Famous Author Friend (and what I love most about teaching)

My absolute favorite thing about being a teacher is listening to children's ideas and questions and following them where they may lead. Over the past couple of weeks their ideas and questions have led us in an exciting and interesting direction. Here's the somewhat long but nonetheless awesome story:

Last fall at the beginning of kindergarten we read a book called Countdown to Kindergarten written by Alison McGhee and illustrated by Harry Bliss. It features a main character who is nervous because there are only ten days left until she starts kindergarten and she STILL CAN'T TIE HER SHOES! She heard from "a first grader" that you have to be able to tie your shoes all by yourself and you can't ask the teacher for help EVER. Fast forward to this fall and our first week of first grade...we read a book entitled Mrs. Watson Wants your Teeth in which a first grader is nervous about losing a tooth at school because she heard from "a second grader" that her teacher, Mrs. Watson, was actually a scary alien who STOLE children's baby teeth. Guess what - Mrs. Watson was created by the same fabulous author and illustrator, AND the children quickly realized it featured the same main character! This was very exciting to them. Last year when we read Countdown she was in kindergarten (like us!) and this year when we read Mrs. Watson she was in first grade (like us!).

So after making lots of connections between the two texts AND between both texts and our real lives, the children realized they had an important question that they could not answer by going back and rereading. They knew the main character was the same in both books...but what about "THE FIRST GRADER" who told her she had to be able to tie her shoes in kindergarten, and "THE SECOND GRADER" who told her Mrs. Watson would steal her baby teeth - was THAT character the same in both books as well? We just HAD to find out the answer to this question, but how?! The children's strategy: ASK THE AUTHOR! We "googled" Alison McGhee and found out that we could email her, so we did!


Here is our first message:

Dear Ms. McGhee,

We like your books very much. Last year in kindergarten we read Countdown to Kindergarten. Now we are in first grade and we just read Mrs. Watson wants your Teeth! We have the same teacher again in first grade. We were wondering if you are going to write 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, and 5th grade books. We think you should do all of elementary school. And make littler kids books too. We have a very big question: was the first grader in Countdown to Kindergarten the SAME kid who was the second grader in Mrs. Watson wants your Teeth? In case you don't know which kid we're talking about, it's the one who was telling her all the stories that made her so nervous. Please write back. Thank you!

Love,
Morgan Lucja Jonathan mason jaina Bailey Scott Sami Nicholas bryanna Nolan sean Luke catherine hannah christopher maggie Adam Jenna Alli kyle Shane

PS - Our teacher has read some of your grown-up books and SHE LOVES THEM!


Just a few days later we had a reply!

Good morning Morgan Lucja Jonathan mason jaina Bailey Scott Sami Nicholas bryanna Nolan sean Luke catherine hannah christopher maggie Adam Jenna Alli kyle and Shane, and of course, Ms. Sero too!

It's so nice to hear from you. Thank you for writing. And I'm glad that you like Countdown to Kindergarten and Mrs. Watson Wants Your Teeth. To answer your question, YES, the little girl is the same exact girl in each book. I haven't written other books about her yet, but maybe I will someday. The problem is that the illustrator, Harry Bliss, has stopped illustrating children's books - and who in the world could draw that girl the exact same way?? I have a question for YOU: Do any of you have a loose tooth??? Please tell your teacher thanks for loving my grownup books!

Your friend, Alison


Now we were really excited to get a message back, but we still didn't feel like we had the answer to our burning question. So...we just had to write back!

Dear Friend Alison,

Thank you for writing back to us! We love your books!!! We are wondering about that "first grader"/"second grader" girl - is she the same girl too? We saw what she looked like in Mrs. Watson Wants your Teeth, but we didn't see her in Countdown to Kindergarten, so we can't figure it out. We mean that girl that was telling her all the scary things. We saw her on the swingset page. [Side note from Mrs. Sero - they really want to know the answer to this question!] :-) We are really happy that you write books. Maybe we can help you draw that girl. We know some really good artists. Thank you for writing to us. We love getting email!

Love, Your first grade friends at Klem South Elementary School


Soon we heard back from our famous author friend, and we had our answer!

My dear friends,

NOW I know what girl you're asking about! The answer is no, she is not the same girl. There's not a picture of her in the Countdown book, but in my mind, they are different girls. Maybe you should all draw a picture of what that girl in Countdown looks like!

Your friend, Alison

Well now we had a challenge on our hands...and you know us - ALWAYS up for a challenge! We decided to create a mental image of the infamous first grader from Countdown to Kindergarten and share our ideas with Ms. McGhee.

I am proud to present the children's illustrations. Ask your child to tell you about his or her work. Click on the pictures to make them bigger so you can really see the details. Stay tuned to find out if we hear back from our famous author friend (and to see whether any of us gets an offer to become a famous illustrator). In the meantime, check out Alison McGhee's website and buy some of her books. She's a great author, and she must be a pretty cool person if she takes the time to write back to a bunch of first grade fans, not once, but twice!























Really Cool Side Note - One of our superstar first graders had recently borrowed the book Diary of a Worm from the Webster Public Library, and she realized that it was also illustrated by Harry Bliss (who we think grew up in or near Rochester!). This fabulous first grader even thinks she found THE SAME CHARACTER from Countdown and Mrs. Watson on one of the pages in Diary of a Worm. It's the page where the worm scares the girls and makes them scream and then says "I love it when they do that!" Could it be? Oh Harry Bliss, if you're out there, could you please let us know if it is the SAME GIRL?!