"Young Readers in Russia" with Mel Boring

Mel is Mel Boring, who has recently returned from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, (old) Russia, where he was invited by the Tashkent International School to present children’s author programs to the 200 students there, in Kindergarten through 12^th grade. Mel is the present editor of the ICL web site, and the author of eight or ten books for children.

Pink shows the user names of the people who are asking questions of Mel.

Kristi: Good evening, everyone! I'm Kristi Holl, your guest moderator, and I'm here tonight interviewing Mel Boring, who recently returned from Russia and is speaking on "Young Readers in Russia."As you may know by now, the scheduled interview guest, Paula Morrow, suffered a detached retina over last weekend. So she cannot even LOOK at a computer, let alone read or type. I (Kristi Holl) will be interviewing Mel Boring about his recent speaking trip to Russia, where he presented to kids in grades K-12. He will tell you how the trip came about, how it worked out, and how you, too, can arrange to visit schools and talk with children about books. Welcome, Mel!

Mel: Hello, everyone! I'm really GLAD to be here to share with you tonight. And I'm even gladder to have Kristi as moderator!

Kristi: How/when/why did you get invited to Russia?

Mel: It started when I joined Authors and Illustrators Who Visit Schools, late last summer. They are a kind of "clearing house" for letting you know about schools that want children's authors to come. This is my first year with Authors and Illustrators Who Visit Schools. By the way, you can find out info about them by using these search words: Authors and Illustrators Who Visit Schools. It's easier to give you those search words than their rather complicated URL. MOST of my school visits have been here in my home state of Iowa, though some were in South Dakota, Illinois and Michigan. Last October, Felicity Timcke, who is the librarian at the International School in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, (old) Russia sent out an invitation. I responded, along with a half-dozen others or so. Finally, by January, she said she would like to invite ME, and I was so PLEASED to get to go there!

Kristi: How might a person join Authors and Illustrators Who Visit Schools?

Mel: You can join in summer for the year to come, and the cost is, ready for this?--$3250 a year. But it is well worth it. My charge for programs is $500 a day, plus expenses. And MOST of the other members of AIVS charge even more, up to $1800 a day plus expenses. When you join AIVS, they give you pages on their web site to display pictures, your books, and any facts needed to book you.

Kristi: How many author visits have you made this past school year?

Mel: I have made nine author visits, ranging from one day, to the actual five school days I was in the Tashkent International School in Uzbekistan, (old) Russia.

silverdove: How many presentations have you done since joining Authors and Illustrators Who Visit Schools?

Mel: Just the nine, silverdove, because this past school year was my first year with AIVS. My first author day was last December 17, in Preston, Iowa, for one day. Actually, author visits could start in September, with the start of school, but because I didn’t join until last August, schools didn’t begin inviting me until after the school year got started. When they invite you, they usually publicize your visit, and your books, and some even do special audio-visual projects before you come. At one school in Cedar Rapids, the children made books about Mel Boring's life (The BORING LIFE, I told them! (-:}). They had asked me for pictures before I came, even baby pictures, and their books were just OUTSTANDING! I learned things about Mel Boring at that school that I had forgotten!

silverdove: What is in your presentation, that allows for charging $500 a day?

Mel: In a typical school presentation, I will usually do a minimum of six different programs for that charge--and maybe even an evening meeting, which some of the other AIVS’ers charge extra for. I might go into the Kindergarten, for instance, and read them THE CAT IN THE HAT, then talk with them about books, books they've heard read to them, and my books. Then I might have a session with, say, third-graders, in which I'll show them the materials I have from my books, such as galley proof sheets. I can show them just how a book is made, put together. I also like to eat lunch with the kids in the cafeteria, and play on the playground with them. At the Tate Woods School near Chicago in March, I played Red Rover with the kids out on the playground after lunch! What visiting with children does for ME is the big thing for me, because I ALWAYS get inspired just being with them, talking to them about what they're reading, answering questions. Sometimes an entire session will be just the questions of some very eager students who have read my books before my visit and have thought of questions they want to ask.

paige: Welcome back, Mel. Did you have any communication difficulties in Russia? I have heard they have McDonalds over there, but do they speak English?

Mel: Thank you, Paige! No communication problems at all. The International School I was at is in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. They have no McDonalds in Tashkent (in fact, one of the teachers at the school said that when she goes home on furlough, the FIRST place she goes to is McDonalds!), but all of the students at the international school speak English. Not to give you a "Boring History," but Uzbekistan is one of about six republics that declared independence from the USSR about 1991 and following. So Uzbekistan is technically not "Russia" anymore. Yet their entire infrastructure is the old soviet, USSR system, and about one-third of the people in Uzbekistan are Russian.

Kristi:Can you tell us more about the Tashkent International School and other schools in Uzbekistan?

Mel: Sure! In the International School in Tashkent, there are about 200 students, from Kindergarten to grade 12. They all speak at least two languages, one of which is English. The children are from umpteen different nationalities in every class. The classes are small there, about a dozen, average. And the teachers at TIS (Tashkent International School) are well paid. Their salary schedule starts at about $28,000 a year. In contrast, the Uzbek (as the people are called) teachers in Uzbek schools are paid a $25 a MONTH, that's twenty-five dollars a month!

Kristi: What is your favorite thing you did at the Tashkent International School, Mel?

Mel: My favorite memory from working at TIS that week is the Kindergarten class on Wednesday, April 30. I dressed up in my CAT IN THE HAT suit, and read THE CAT IN THE HAT to them. The children at TIS are all really enthusiastic, and were very excited about my visit--and I was too!

Kristi: Where did you go, other than to Uzbekistan?

Mel: Katy, our 15-year-old daughter, went with me, and we went first to London. We took a double-decker bus tour the first day, to get a "bird's-eye view," and picked out the things we wanted to go see. Then the second (and last) day there, we went to see as much as we could. Katy wanted to go shopping, of course, and we did, at Harrod's and many other places. We also went to see "My Fair Lady" in the theater it was originally performed in, in Drury Lane, and it was FABULOUS.

Kristi: Oh, my! We are all jealous!

Mel: We went on "The London Eye," a giant Ferris-kind-of wheel about 500 feet high, that lets you see all over London. And it wasn't even scary. The cars on the London Eye are huge, as big as our living room; and they move s-l-o-w-l-y. We went across the Tower Bridge, of course, and to the top of St. Mark’s Cathedral and as many other places as we could.

silverdove: Travel time from here to there, was how long?

Mel: From Minneapolis to Chicago to London, about 7 hours. From London to one stop in Yerevan, Armenia to Tashkent, about 9 hours. On the way home, straight through from Tashkent to Yerevan to London to Chicago to Minneapolis, 20 hours in the air!

Kristi: Ouch!

silverdove: In comparison to the U.S., how did you find their school: education, books, daily schedule?

Mel: The International School is VERY comparable to any U.S. school I've been in, silverdove. The students there, by the way, are children of ambassadors to Uzbekistan and children of International companies, like the British American Tobacco Company, and such. Their books were just like texts I've seen in the U.S., and they have textbook adoption processes just like the U.S. The daily schedule is the same. We began about 8:30AM and ended the day at 3:PM. And they offer things like social studies in 7th grade, just for example, where I spoke with the children about Native Americans, since I've written about them.

Kristi: How "modernized" do the streets of Tashkent look to outsiders like you and Katy?

Mel: Not too modernized! The streets are just about as wide as streets in New York, and the cars race fast and furiously. Drivers don’t recognize traffic lanes, so they switch back and forth from lane to lane at will. Their police force (the Russian system) is interesting. At every corner you see two or three policepersons. They don’t have cars for most police in the city of Tashkent. Instead, a policeperson may wave you over to stop. You get out and the policeperson may say, "You ran the red light" (which you probably didn't) or "You are drunk," which likely isn't true. But the police make very little in wages. They get their real money by making charges, and motorists have to pay on the spot, which the policepeople pocket, and that's the way the police are paid. I do have to say that, with all the furious raceabout on the streets there, I saw NOT ONE accident the entire week I was in Tashkent!

Kristi: Why is Uzbekistan so undeveloped in its economy and other aspects?

Mel: Their history is old. Katy and I were treated to a weekend trip to Samarkand, east of Tashkent about 300 kilometers. There we saw OLD, things that were 2500 to 3000 years old, because Samarkand was a big city on the old SILK ROUTE from China to other parts of Asia and to Europe. In 400 BC, Alexander the Great took over "the world" and Samarkand included, and destroyed what was there, built what he wanted. Later, Genghis Khan conquered Samarkand, and Uzbekistan, destroying many buildings there, and so it went through history. But SOME of the oldest buildings have survived, taking you back 3000 years. When Russia ruled the region then, they subjected the Uzbeks to their own system. And Uzbekistan never really had a chance to develop a country that was Uzbek, always ruled by others. So when Uzbekistan was "born" in 1991, they had to "start from scratch" and make their "own place," and that is going very s-l-o-w-l-y.

Kristi: What about Uzbek money, currency?

Mel: Their money is NOT convertible; that is, the only place you can exchange for it is in Uzbekistan. And their monetary system is set up for a very hand-to-mouth economy. The SOUM is the basic monetary unit of Uzbekistan, and it takes one thousand soum to equal one U.S. Dollar. When we were given a going-away dinner on the last day, there were about 25 teachers and administrators there, and they of course paid the bill in soum. I have a picture of the money used to pay the bill, which probably amounted to less than a hundred U.S. dollars, and the stack of Uzbek soum bills was SIX INCHES high! You couldn't stuff a hundred U.S. dollars' worth of soum in ALL your pockets!

Paige: Was there a big difference in knowledge about the outside world between the TIS kids and the non-TIS?

Mel: Yes, a vast difference! The TIS kids were using words that our kids say, like "cool," of course, but also all the newest kids' expressions. I was careful at first not to use too many American expressions, but I soon found the kids there in the TIS school using them when speaking to ME! They are very up-to-date. The kids NOT in the TIS, are Uzbeks, Russians, and Izbeks (from nearby Izbekistan), and they speak one or two languages, but not English. Katy and I had a really nice Uzbek driver down to Samarkand, but he knew very little English. Yet, it was fun talking to him, simply because he was so GLAD to get to be our driver, for what little he was paid. We filled up the tank of his compact car, by the way, 12 gallons that cost the equivalent of 12 dollars American.

halnic: Did you have time to visit a Uzbek or Russian school?

Mel: No, I didn't, though I really wanted to. I talked to some of the TIS teachers about Uzbek schools, though. They said that the Uzbek children only go to school two days a week, and the days are only half-days. One reason is that the Uzbek children are expected to put a hand to earning the family's meager living very early. The Uzbek teachers, I was told, are trained by going to workshops and seminars for teachers in schools like TIS and other international schools. So, they don't have thorough teacher training, like four years of college, but they do have some training.

nokomis: Did you bring hostess gifts to the family you stayed with?

Mel: Yes, I stayed with a Korean family, a lovely family. I gave them three of my books. I did that partly because I could pack the books in limited space without breaking, and they appeared to be very happy to get them. There are no bookstores in Uzbekistan, period. Katy stayed with a Belgian-Australian family, with five girls, three of those in the high school at TIS. She went to school with them each day, and I hardly saw her. We also gave that family my books.

silverdove: I’m sorry about this question but, is it true about having to bring your own toilet/bathroom tissue? I don't get out much--LOL!

Mel: No need to be sorry about the basic necessities of life, silverdove! (-:}. We did NOT have to bring our own toilet tissue; it was plentous at the Korean home I stayed in, and (I presume) at the home Katy stayed in. But I did ask about the homes of common Uzbek folk, and was told that toilet tissue is not considered a necessity, especially for the poorest!

Kristi: Were you and Katy ever in any danger because of the tense international situation?

Mel: No, we were not, Kristi. MANY folks here expressed that concern before we left, but Felicity Timcke, the librarian who invited us (who is South African by descent, by the way), had told me before we left that all during the Afghanistan War, they had no problems, even though Uzbekistan borders on Afghanistan to the south. We went in from the North and West, and out the same way. And, in fact, except for TV, we were unaware of any tense International situation. And even TV was limited to very few channels that could be beamed in by satellite.

Kristi: What school did you work at in Taskkent?

Mel: I was at TIS, or the Tashkent International School. In fact, I learned that there are jillions of international schools all over the world. All the teachers at TIS (Tashkent International School) were only there for a three-year hitch, then they would decide to stay or not after that. All of the teachers (except a man and wife, P.E. and 5th-grade, teacher pair, from Minnesota) had been at from two to a half-dozen other international schools. The director of TIS had been in Fairbanks, Alaska, Aberdeen, Scottland, and several other schools all over the world.

Kristi: Wow!!! What grade levels did you work with?

Mel: I worked with Kindergarten through grade 12. There were 13 kids in the Kindergarten, and only five in the high school senior class! And last year they graduated seven kids in their grade 12 class. Those grads, by the way, go on to great things. All seven of last year's grads were in U.S. colleges like Harvard and other ivy league schools, and other prestigious U.S. universities OR they were in other universities throughout the world--and achieving very well.

Kristi: Tell us more about your favorite class presentation during the week.

Mel: It was in the Kindergarten, hands down! I wore my CAT IN THE HAT suit, which is a black and white whole-body suit with the cat's big red bow tie, and my CAT IN THE HAT hat, with wide red and white bright stripes

Kristi: Oh, I wish we had a picture of that! 8-)

Mel: You’ll be able to see a picture of that because I’m going to use it on the Authors and Illustrators Who Visit Schools site next school year! The suit even has a TAIL, and I tend not to notice it, but the KIDS do! They always laugh when I turn around and they can see my tail--and I keep turning around and making believe I don’t know what they’re laughing at. What I did in reading Dr. Seuss's THE CAT IN THE HAT to them, was read it upside-down. That is, I held it so they could see the pictures straight on, while I looked over the top and read up-side down. The kids REALLY get a kick out of that. AND I don't say the "BUMP"s every time they occur in THE CAT IN THE HAT. Instead, I put my hand to my ear when the first "BUMP" comes up, and they catch on to saying it, LOUD as we can! It's such a FUN book to read, and sometimes kids will ask if I wrote THE CAT IN THE HAT. Of course I tell them no. But the kids at Tashkent International School LOVE Dr. Seuss, and they also like the Harry Potter books, like most other kids. BUT they also talked about C.S. Lewis's books, like THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE (a favorite of mine!), and they have read or are reading those books, which are fairly old. They also love and read J.R.R. Tolkien. Even kids who seemed too young for those were reading them.

silverdove: Are there any copyright problems with performing Cat In the Hat in costume?

Mel: No, it's a costume I bought at www.costumes.com, and it has a Dr. Seuss-approved label in it, so I'm sure his estate gets a share. Actually, I've found--when I first bought a ONE FISH, TWO FISH, THREE FISH, BLUE FISH tie--that on the label it tells how the "Seuss Foundation" approves items of merchandise, and also that part of the price paid goes to buy books for kids. I think that is something Dr. Seuss's widow arranged, nicely.

fred: Mel, did you wear the suit while going through customs?

Mel: NO, but I wish I had, fred! GREAT idea--I'll try it next time I go overseas! (-:}

Kristi: A stiff fine for sure!

Mel: I did wear the suit down the hall going to the Kindergarten room, and the administrators would come out of their offices and be really surprised! A couple of them had their pictures taken with me.

soradina: Did you read to them any stories that you wrote?

Mel: Yes, soradina, I read to some of them "The Feather in Ms. Reed's Class," which was published in CRICKET in June, 1998, and I told them how that story came about, once when I was reading on the couch to our two youngest kids, Katy and Zack, and a feather just floated down out of nowhere, which birthed that story. Kids love to hear about the wacky ways our stories are born. Since I'd been a math teacher, I set that story in 8^th- grade math, on the last day of school. It had a teacher, Ms. Reed (who, like I was as a teacher, was very excited about her subject--algebra). On the last day of school, as Ms. Reed is lecturing away with her back to the class at the chalkboard, a feather floats into the classroom from nowhere. So the kids start blowing it back and forth, and a game of "volleyfeather" develops that the teacher doesn't see. Then toward the end of the period, with the silent game tied 16 to 16, the feather floats up toward Ms. Reed (whom NONE of the kids have liked), and Ms. Reed notices the feather for the first time, blows it out the window, smiles for the first time they can remember, and says, "Have a NICE summer!" And that is the beginning of kids LIKING Ms. Reed the math teacher, who once seemed to think that there was no life after math.

ozbo: How does a Newbie go about preparing a school program?

Mel: GOOD question, ozbo! If you have ANYthing published, bring it to read, and to explain how it came to be written. I find kids fascinated with that, because, I think, they tend to think that us writers' great ideas come from a golden treasure chest hidden away somewhere. And when they find out our ideas come from sources VERY available to EVERYone, I think it encourages them. If you don't have anything published to read, as a newbie, you can read them what you ARE writing, ozbo, and haven’t published yet. The kids won't really think about the difference between published and unpublished. And it's a wonderful place to test new story ideas in! I have a mid-grade novel I started three years ago, and only eight chapters of it written. It's about a girl and a horse. One school visit recently, kids were asking about fiction books I was working on, and I found myself telling them the story, which I've only tentatively called HORSE. Well, when I got to chapter 8, speaking to them about it out loud, I realized suddenly that I had begun the book TOO EARLY. It really only should have begun at Chapter 8. And I found myself telling the kids just what I was thinking about starting that book later! It was a marvelous experience, because I truly felt like the kids were helping me write that book. And they seemed very pleased that I would share with them what I had NOT even begun to publish yet!

Kristi: What a great learning experience for YOU too! Mel, how does the Tashkent International School compare with U.S. Schools?

Mel: It is a little better than the school in our Iowa town here, and part of that "betterness" is the "international meld" of BOTH teachers and students, in my opinion. I have found that every time I go overseas, it's like a college education for me. And there at the Tashkent International School (and probably every international school), they have that international meld of so MANY nationalities and languages. There is something about that, I think, that is very enriching for education in general.

ozbo: How many of their classes are taught in English?

Mel: ALL of the classes are taught in English, ozbo, and most all of the children speak and understand and read English fluently. The only exception was the ESL class--for about a half dozen kids for whom English was their SECOND language, and they had not had much chance to learn it. The other children had learned it about the same time they learned their own native language. I recall being surprised once, on my first trip overseas, in Japan, that ALL children there learned English from about, as I recall, the fourth grade.

ozbo: Was housing provided for your trip, and, if so, where?

Mel: Yes, I stayed with a Korean family. The husband, Woo Sung Lee, worked at the Korean Embassy in Tashkent. He was involved in picking up visiting Korean dignitaries at the airport, and arranging for their stay there in Tashkent, and many other jobs at the Korean embassy. His wife was MiGyung Park, who was a delightful hostess, and even had me served pancakes every morning! I've learned lots about oriental hospitality, which finds out in advance what you particularly like to eat, and provides it with no fanfare. I've been served a chocolate ice cream sundae in Japan, for instance! The Park/Sung family have two children, one who is named Jee-Hyun, a third-grader. She was just a delight to visit with, and was reading the Junie B. Jones books, for instance, and all the lastest that U.S. children read. She read aloud to me from one of the Junie B. Jones books--the first time I had had the chance to see one. Someone asked before about gifts for the hostesses we stayed with, and one "extra gift," I'm sending is A SINGLE SHARD to the third-grader in the Korean home I stayed in, Jee-Hyun. She will LOVE that great Newbery-Medal book from 2002 by Linda Sue Park. The last member of my Korean family was Jee-Woo! She was two, and I fell in love with her! We played "red ball" and other games she and I made up!

Kristi: I know you presented to a wide variety of ages. What did you present to the 7th-grade geography class?

Mel: I talked about Native Americans, since I've written about American Indians. The teacher there, an Uzbek, by the way, had told me that her class had studied the Westward Movement of the U.S., and the kids had many questions about our Native Americans. I told the kids that when I read Dee Brown's BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE, my heart was broken for what was done to our Native Americans. You know, I can NEVER talk about that but what I get teary, telling about the massacre at Wounded Knee, and how the Native American culture was virtually destroyed. So I told the 7th graders at the Tashkent International School about that, during the two periods I was with them, from Christopher Columbus to the late 1800’s and the so-called "Battle of Wounded Knee." What astounded me was that several of the students told me about similar treatment of original inhabitants of their own native countries--such as the aborigine in Australia!

Kristi: What was their response to hearing your view of America's Native Americans?

Mel: Most of them had had very little teaching about our Native Americans. So as I began with Columbus, I told them how our "Indians" were not even fairly named, since Columbus hadn't reached India, for instance. And I was so pleased to find kids who had no mind-set about Native Americans, but were very open to the real facts, such as, as I told them, our Native Americans had wives and husbands and children and grandchildren--and even their own jokes! They were simply PEOPLE. And the kids' response there was to ask even more questions. But it struck me that the kids there needed no "unteaching" about untruths about American Indians--it was refreshing!

Kristi: What did you teach in the writing workshop you gave for high school seniors?

Mel: There were only four of the five in the senior class there, and such a small audience game me plenty of latitude. I talked first about essay writing, because I knew that the seniors had done or were doing that for their college applications. What I taught them was to be 1) PERSONAL and 2) UNIQUE. Because, I said, if you're the college official, reading a jillion essays on a long Friday afternoon, it would be the PERSONAL and UNIQUE that would jump out at them. Then one of the girls in this small group asked if she could read aloud an essay she had written. And I was happily surprised to find that she had already done just what I was talking about. She told in her essay about a personal experience with a very unique individual in her country, a minority person, and what she had learned from that person. And the others in the class then volunteered to talk about what they were writing. It was refreshing for me, too!

Kristi: How did you vary your presentations of children's books, reading and writing them, from your usual presentation to kids in the U.S.?

Mel: Very little, actually, Kristi, except when I talked about how a book is put together. The materials I show, such as the galley proof sheets for one of my books, I spent more time on that at TIS. With U.S. kids, who seem to understand more about how a book is made, it's a bit different than with kids in whose countries there may be very few books. So they seemed more amazed, like "So THAT’S how a book is made!" It was more like they were seeing something for the first time. In the WRITING of books, for other instance, I had two after-school classes, one for second-graders and another for third-graders. With the second-graders, we made books. We took sheets of paper and folded them enough times to make 32 pages--as for picture books--then we stapled them, and the kids made pictures and wrote text in their books. That is something I usually don't have time and space to do with U.S. kids, because the classes are so much bigger. But it worked at the Tashkent International School, and very well. With the third-grade after-school meeting, I read to them from a Harry Potter book, just an excerpt. Then we talked about what makes the J.K. Rowling books so appealing, in terms of characters and plot and such. Then they went to their tables and began writing their own books.

ozbo: You did many presentations, how many were prepared ahead?

Mel: ZERO, ozbo, because I'm an "intuitive" kind of presenter. I have to say, though, that I've been presenting school programs for 30 years now, so I’ve had lots of practice. The first programs I did (in California), I did for free, by the way. I found that the people who invited me were very understanding, so ANYthing I did seemed to be okay. But through the 30 years, I've tried lots of different approaches, and lots of different materials. So I take along about four totebags of materials, like the galley proof sheets I mentioned, and copies of my ten published books. Plus, I take along my copy of Dr. Seuss's THE 500 HATS OF BARTHOLOMEW CUBBINS. With that book, incidentally, I tell Kindergarteners and first-graders and second-graders when I talk to them, that 500 HATS was the FIRST BOOK my first-grade teacher ever read to ME! Then I "act out" some of that story, taking off my hat, and tell them how Miss Angus' reading of that book to my own first-grade class probably had something to do with my becoming a children's writer. And I tell them that book may be partly why I love hats so much--a lot of rather crazy tricks I've picked up over the years. I also take along old manuscripts, to show them how they look when you first submit them. Kids seem fascinated with the "bits and pieces" of getting published.

ozbo: How does a Newbie propose a program to a school?

Mel: I would simply volunteer to read to kids in a school near where you live, for starters. Some teachers would jump at the chance to have you come and read. Take along some books you’re familiar with, ones that you think will interest the particular age level. As you read, you can interact with the kids a lot, or not. Just simply read to them, if you need to "get over the frights." Then you can interact by asking kids to do a certain sound in the book, or asking them to add to the story here or there. After you’ve done that a few times, you can tell a school (usually the librarian would be the best person to suggest a program to) that you have had experience, and would like to do a short program for kids in whatever grade you feel most comfortable with, and do it for free at first, of course.

wendyhaber: If presenting programs in schools to children is a goal, do you recommend starting out giving free presentations as a way to get your feet wet?

Mel: Yes, wendyhaber, I DO recommend starting out for free, to "get your feet wet" is the best way I can think of saying it, as you did. In the beginning, maybe you'll just volunteer to read any book to kids because you can learn a lot that way, about how to read to kids, about how they respond to a book being read, and just to chat with them--it's always fun for me. I learned about the "Meet and Greet" from writing about clowns. So now I most always go right up to a line of kids coming in for the program and say hi, and maybe shake hands with them, or tell them "I'm the Boring guy!" or just kind of "break the ice" with them. One of the most important things I can do in a program for children, I think, is to show them that I am just an ordinary person! Many people put authors on pedestals (and some authors love that!), but I don’t want to be on a pedestal, so I tell them, for instance, how old I am, about my nurse wife and family, each of my four children, what they do, what my children are interested in. About our dog, and our 13 cats, an even our canary!

ozbo: How did you go from free presentations to paid presentations?

Mel: I began to get, maybe, ten dollars for a presentation, or maybe 25 dollars, unasked-for. Then when I began to realize how much WORK it is to present to children (work I LOVE, albeit!), it seemed fair to me to ask for a fee. I think my first fee that I actually asked for was fifty dollars, ozbo. And I found that when I charged, somehow the kids were better prepared. I think it's a matter of teachers/administrators thinking that, if they are going to pay all that money, they'd better make it worth it. So I began to find more often that kids had read my books before I came, and I didn't have to spend so much time "introducing myself." I could have a kind of "running start." Then when I considered charging what I do now, per day, it seemed to really make sense that if they paid so much for a program, they would put so much into it. And so it has been. And of course everything they put into the program before it happens makes it easier for me. I think, too, that if, say, Michael Jordan were coming to speak to kids at a school, what would they be willing to pay him? Five thousand dollars? We writers are worth the money they pay us to talk about one of the MOST important things in life: reading books!

Kristi: Mel, what did your trip do for your children's writing?

Mel: Firstly, it made me want to write an article about Uzbekistan, which I am going to do. More importantly, I saw that WE ARE ONE in the world. Sure, there are disputes and wars between many of our world's people, but as I looked into the eyes of all those children, speaking many languages, and from many nations, it occurred to me that we ARE one, in the sense that they are interested in so many similar things to those U.S. kids are interested in.

Kristi: So well said! I'm sorry, but we're out of time now. Mel, thank you for sharing with us about your once-in-a-lifetime trip! I would have given a lot to have been a fly on the wall over there and watching you! I will let you take over now and tell the viewers about your next interview guest. Good night, everyone!

Mel: THANK YOU, Kristi, for the marvelous job YOU did!

Kristi: You've very welcome!

Mel: On Thursday, May 29, our Interview Guest will be Pam Zollman. Pam is the editor of the "You Can Make It" craft pages in Highlights For Children Magazine. She is also their editor for young nonfiction, children up to age eight. Her own stories have appeared in a variety of children’s magazines, anthologies and testing materials. Pam is also the author of numerous chapter books designed for use in the classroom. Her juvenile novel, DON’T BUG ME!, was published by Holiday House in June 2001. She is widely considered a market expert in writers’ circles. For six years she served as the Children’s Magazine Market Guide Coordinator for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), speaking on the subject for the past five years at SCBWI conferences in California. So come with questions for this very versatile children’s writer on May 29! Goodnight, all!