The Undercover Kids’ Adventure Series Author Speaks to Students

“You were once four years old?” the young girl asked with wide eyes. She could not believe that the picture of the young girl that was up on the PowerPoint screen was the same grownup woman standing in front of her.  The grownup was the writer, Gloria Smith Zawaski the author of The Trunk in the Attic. She was speaking to a group of 150 students at the Emma Chase Elementary School in Wurtsboro, NY. Her presentation was sponsored by the school’s PTO.

Gloria was at the school speaking to the students about how an idea becomes a book. The presentation consisted of Gloria describing why she wanted to become an author, what goes into publishing a book (who is involved, the roles they play, etc.) and how the children can stimulate their own imagination through writing. Overall, the children were highly engaged and enthusiastic about interacting with a real life author and many of them seemed to want to become budding authors themselves. Kelly Creighton, from the school’s PTO, coordinated the event. Hear Kelly speak about the importance of children learning to read and write their own stories here!

Gloria encouraged the students to write their own stories and offered four suggestions:

1. Start with what “if ideas”…What you could did to China? What if you met an alien on your way home?
2. Get someone else to read it and see if they understand it.
3. Ask someone to proof for spelling and punctuation
4. And post them on The Undercover Kids’ website for others to read.

The kids really enjoyed having Gloria sign the books they had purchased. Every student in the audience was given an Undercover Kids purple band which is meant to encourage creativity. One student asked, “Can I go to Africa with this band?”

Gloria meets her fans at Emma Chase Elementary!