Kids and Teen Blog
8 Year Old Sophie France Writes About Meeting Annie Barrows
by Crystal
Events + Guest Blogger + Kids + Vancouver / November 18, 2011
On November 1st I had the great pleasure of spending the day with author extraordinaire, Annie Barrows. Annie is the author of the hilarious Ivy and Bean Series.
Annie and I got into all kinds of mischief together, including riding a giant teacup at Chapters Robson and taking a well deserved break on the Raincoast boardroom table after signing a few hundred copies of Ivy and Bean No News Is Good News. (See photographic evidence.)
Annie is such a blast to hang out with. One of my favorite things about her is the way she interacts with the kids who come out to her events. 
My good friend Hanna, who writes the blog The Famished Foodies, was at the event with her 8 year old daughter Sophie. I decided that instead of me telling you about my day with Annie it would be more interesting to hear about one of Annie's events through the eyes of a child. Sophie, an aspiring illustrator and writer was happy to oblige. Take it away Sophie!
Let's run! I was pulling along my mom to see Annie Barrows. It was a chilly night and it was already dark after our warm sushi dinner. We were forty minutes early and I got what I wanted. Front row seats!
Annie Barrows is a famous writer of my favourite books. She wrote all of the Ivy and Bean books and also The Magic Half. And she uses tons of juicy words. My teacher likes those juicy words. I love Ivy because she reads a lot and so do I. And I like Bean a lot because she's goofy. I am the goofiest! All of Annie Barrows' stories are funny, realistic and wonderful. One time, in What's the Big Idea?, Ivy and Bean made a million and seven science potions in their house. This got messy. This is something I do. (But I haven't done a million and seven.) Yet.
Sitting in the front row with my new hardcover, No News is Good News, I saw my friend, Emma, from school and invited her to squeeze in next
to me. I was really excited and I had to talk and talk and we laughed and laughed until it was time to listen. And then there was Annie Barrows. She read four chapters of this great new book and it was very funny. She was funny too! She even brought a cheeseball covered with red wax just like in the story.
After her reading, she answered questions like which book was the easiest and which was the hardest to write. By the way, the hardest book was Doomed to Dance and the easiest was Ivy and Bean, the first one. Then she signed books and wrote "Say cheeeeese!" in mine. See? She's funny.
At home that night I only read two chapters but I finished the book the next evening. I'm really excited to wait for the next book but while I wait, I'll be reading the series over again from the beginning. When I grow up I will definitely be an illustrator and now I think I may be a writer too!
By Sophie France Ahn, age 8! :-)
A special thanks to Kidsbooks for hosting two fabulous Ivy and Bean events, to Hanna Ahn (Zuzu Photography) for her beautiful photographs (last two in this post) and for having such a talented daughter, to Annie Barrows for another fabulous day together in Vancouver and to Sophie for her incredible blog post.
Comments (5) |
Tags:
annie barrows chapters famished foodies ivy and bean kidsbooks zuzu photography
Comments
On November 18, 2011 at 02:44 PM, may delory said:
On November 18, 2011 at 06:01 PM, Kirsten Jansen said:
Wow Sophie! Sounds like you had a great time. I had a great time reading your blog! Keep it up! Lots of love to you! Auntie Kir
On November 18, 2011 at 07:03 PM, Jean Clancy said:
Sophie, So glad you love to read and have had a wonderful time discovering Annie’s books. Hope you continue to make new friends who love to read as much as you do.
On November 18, 2011 at 10:07 PM, Keven Bridge said:
Dear Sophie,
You are already a writer!!! Keep it up.
I enjoyed reading your narrative of your evening with Annie Barrows. You make her books sound very interesting.
I hope you will write more blogs as well as many other things: have fun!
warmly, Keven
On November 29, 2011 at 04:55 PM, Klara Svecova said:
Dear Sophie,
What a wonderful review! You captured my attention from the first sentence. I also enjoy reading Annie Barrows’ books, as the adventures that she writes about remind me of my childhood. I had to take care of Sebastian and I felt a little sad that I could not attend the presentation. Reading your blog post made me feel like I was there and that I did not miss anything. I hope to read more from you soon. Klara Svecova
Wow, i really enjoyed reading this blog post written by Sophie France (8-years-old-and growing!) about meeting Annie Barrows, author of several books for kids, and adults i bet, too. This post reminded me of a mystery story i wrote over twenty-years-ago about an author who writes books for children. Well, the m.s. is still in the bottom drawer! I do believe I’ll take another looksee.
Thanks for the inspiration Sophie.
may delory