Maine Author 2010

Have you ever thought about what goes into creating a book? The students of Cushing Community School have. Author and illustrator Chris VanDusen captivated the students on Maine Author Day at CCS. VanDusen shared the making of his very first book, Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee, which took longer than most of our students have been alive! He showed them how he made his plans for his book. Then he showed them many attempts at the sketches for the book. The students were in awe of how many times he edited and revised his book. He entertained them with the reading of this book, which he had memorized. He showed them that the books have been printed in other languages as well. The students did very well at guessing which language each was printed in.

 VanDusen was impressed with our students’ knowledge of his books and the books that certain authors had written, as well as their experience with painting in Art class. Ask your children how he got the little blue dots into the wave of Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee.   

VanDusen clearly was excited about sharing his work. He told the students about his current book, which should be out in October 2010. He also shared ideas about future books. The children loved how he included a picture of Mr. Magee in other books such as If I Built a Car and The Circus Ship. Even though one of the future book's time period is way before Mr. Magee’s time, the children encouraged him to include Mr. Magee in some way.