Author Visits with Lower and Intermediate Schools

Students in the Lower and Intermediate Schools welcomed children’s book author and travel enthusiast Leah Henderson for a full day of sharing, reading and writing.

Henderson is the author of many critically acclaimed books for young readers that have appeared on a number of Best Books lists, including the New York Public Library, Bank Street College and the Center for the Study of Multicultural Children’s Literature. Her website shares, “Because many of the books she read as a child did not resemble the world she saw, her earliest stories came from a need to finish the tales and follow the real-life achievements and journeys of people and places she saw and learned about on her travels that were often overlooked. Through seeing the world, Leah has witnessed the richness that can be found within everyone’s individual story. That is why writing the world she sees is so vitally important to her.”

During her time at Parker, Henderson met with three groups. First, she shared her writing process with Intermediate School students and answered questions on a range of topics.

Next, students in Junior Kindergarten through 2nd grade attended a special Morning Ex that featured Henderson discussing voting and its importance. She described how people vote, what they vote on and why they vote before reading her new book Your Voice, Your Vote, in which the main character, Quetta, recounts her day traveling with her mother and grandmother to vote and the problems that got in their way. This book perfectly explained to these young minds the difficulties many experience when they try to vote and drove home the importance of overcoming these obstacles.

Finally, Henderson led a special Writing Workshop led for 3rd graders. Each student, equipped with paper and writing utensils, went through her process of writing—developing characters, finding their motivations, setting the scenes and making up obstacles they have to overcome. The 3rd graders gleefully shared with Henderson their creative creations at every step of the workshop. And, as a special treat, many students stayed after to have Henderson autograph their new stories.

Parker is very grateful to Henderson for spending the day on campus, sharing her writing process and explaining the vitally important nature of voting in a way that resonated with developing young minds.

Click here to see photos.