But elementary school students are the most fun!
Their enthusiasm, interest, passion for learning, and love of life are absolutely infectious. You can't help but come away from those sessions rejuvenated and on a high that makes you want to run back to your office and publish more inspiring and funny books as fast as you can!
Which brings me to the reason for today's blog - Awesome Thank-You Cards from Grade 6 Students of Naicam School!
Last fall, we did a lot of travelling and talking about our books. Thanks to a one-time grant from the Creative Industries Transition Fund, through the Saskatchewan Arts Board, we made 62 presentations in 27 communities in the three Prairie Provinces. We spoke to 3,200 students and 150 adults at schools, libraries, seniors’ residences, bookstores and museums - not to mention the hundreds of people we met at trade and craft shows. It was amazing.
One day in November 2013, Al (my husband, and publisher partner in DriverWorks Ink) and I went to Naicam School, in the town of Naicam, Saskatchewan (east of Saskatoon and south of Melfort).
We spent the day at the school, and I made presentations to all the students, in four different groupings.
Here I'm speaking with the older grades.
And here I'm talking with the youngest group of students.
All the students at Naicam School were well-behaved, attentive, curious, and fun to chat with about the process of writing and the importance of reading and writing as tools for learning and a brighter future.
A few days ago, we received a package of handmade thank-you cards from the Grade 6 students. It had been misplaced at the school until recently, but the months that passed in between only meant we received a wonderful surprise in the mail, which reminded us again of the great time we had last fall!
At my presentations, I told the Naicam School students about my background as a farm kid growing up in Alberta, then moving to Saskatchewan in 1975 and working as a Canadian journalist and publisher since. I briefly mentioned the first two books I wrote - Just A Bunch of Farmers and Never Give Up - even though neither is available for sale any more, and I told them about my latest two non-fiction books, Never Leave Your Wingman: Dionne and Graham Warner's Story of Hope and The Sailor and the Christmas Trees.
I also told the Grade 6 students about these titles, written by other authors and published by DriverWorks Ink, which might be of interest to their age group:
The Little Coat: The Bob and Sue Elliott Story by Alan J. Buick
Letters to Jennifer From Maudie & Oliver by Sharon Gray
SuperMom and the Big Baby by Dave Driver
These are some of the thank-you cards (in no particular order) that we received from the Grade 6 students, followed by my answers to their questions:
Front of the card...
Inside of the card...
I am pleased that you are interested in Never Give Up: Ted Jaleta's Inspiring Story. It is the second of the five books I've written. Ted Jaleta is an amazing man. I am proud to say that he is now my friend because we grew so close when I wrote this book. There is so much that we can all learn from Ted, including the importance of getting an education, hanging out with positive people instead of those who are always negative, working hard towards the goals we set for ourselves, and appreciating what we have here in Canada. I hope you can borrow the book from a library either in your area or in some other region of Saskatchewan.
You must like living on a farm. We don't have any more copies of the Just A Bunch of Farmers book, but you might be able to borrow a copy through your local library. As you know from my presentation, I grew up on a farm near the town of Athabasca, Alberta, north of Edmonton. We didn't have red machinery when I was little. My dad bought only Case equipment, which was orange in colour, because my Uncle John owned the Case dealership in town. My brother owns the family farm now. He has machinery of all makes and colours, including a tractor that's red.
I love the drawings you made of four of our books. Good work! I also love the stationery you used to write your letter. Yay for book lovers! Thank you for enjoying The Sailor and the Christmas Trees. It is a nice, heart-warming story and I was happy to write it and share that story with the world.
I do not have a favourite book of the five books that I've written. I like them all for different reasons. Just A Bunch of Farmers and From The West to the World share stories of fascinating entrepreneurs who built very successful companies on the Prairies. Never Give Up and Never Leave Your Wingman: Dionne and Graham Warner's Story of Hope are stories of inspiring, remarkable people who can teach all of us so much about overcoming difficulties, leaving their troubles in the past and living life to the fullest every day with as much joy and passion as we can muster. The Sailor and the Christmas Trees is a nice story about something extraordinary that happened because of a rather simple act of a Canadian soldier during the war.
I was 45 years old when I wrote my first book. That might seem old but it really isn't for writing. We work with an author who wrote her first book when she was 70 years old. Isn't that neat? I hope you do write one or more books. It's fun and very rewarding when you see all that hard work end up in a printed book you can hold in your hands.
I was 45 years old when I wrote my first book. That might seem old but it really isn't for writing. We work with an author who wrote her first book when she was 70 years old. Isn't that neat? I hope you do write one or more books. It's fun and very rewarding when you see all that hard work end up in a printed book you can hold in your hands.
I have a couple of ideas for books I would like to write some day, but I do not have any writing projects on the go at the moment.
Thank you for your card. I hope I was able to encourage you to keep on reading and writing. Find a type of book or magazine or newspaper that you like to read and keep on reading. It's a great way to learn, and to improve your vocabulary and your understanding of the world around you. I find that writing helps me to express myself. If I write something down - whether I'm happy, sad, confused, or just have a lot on my mind - it gets those thoughts out of my head and onto a piece of paper or into a computer document. Then I can release those thoughts and think about other things.
I am glad that you had fun in my presentation. I try not to make it boring for listeners.
I do like farming but I have allergies, so the dust, hay and animals make it hard for me to spend too much time on a farm these days.
I do like your card. You and your classmates made Al and I smile all day long as we looked at your wonderful thank-you cards. Thank you for taking the time to send a note of appreciation to us. It's really nice to hear from people who enjoyed my presentation and our books. Our authors work really hard to write great stories. We are so pleased to share their work with students in Saskatchewan and elsewhere.
Thank you for the nice compliments. I am pleased to hear from another student who is interested in the Never Give Up book. Ted Jaleta is an amazing man with an incredible, inspiring story. I have had to stop talking about that book because students immediately want to buy the book and we don't have any available for purchase. Maybe we'll print some more some day. You never know. Check with your library to see if they can order the Never Give Up book from another library in Saskatoon or Regina.
It sounds like you are a person who is eager to learn. That is a wonderful characteristic that will help you achieve great things as you grow older. Thank you for being interested in our books and stories of Prairie people. I am sure that you will enjoy The Little Coat because it is an inspiring true story about a 10-year-old girl who saved her father from a German firing squad and then met a Canadian soldier who helped save her family and country from Adolph Hitler's regime during the Second World War. It is a story with a happy ending, and those are always nice to read. SuperMom and the Big Baby definitely is a funny book. It's kind of like a Robert Munsch book in its silliness - and who doesn't love Robert Munsch?
Thank you again for your cards, Naicam School students. They put huge smiles on our faces!
I will post the rest of your wonderful thank-you cards, along with the rest of my answers to your questions, in my next blog. I'll talk to you soon!
Take care,
Deana Driver
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