At Scribner Road Elementary in Rochester I was greeted by this Aliens-themed mural, signed by every student in the school. What a cool welcome!

A really cool Even Aliens Need Snacks display at Frank Knight Elementary in Seneca Falls. Just one of a school full of great projects by some very talented artists/readers.

I love this Even Aliens Need Snacks snack stand spotted at a recent author visit at Scott M. Ellis Elementary, made from a cleverly disguised easel. Even better, it comes with a book of amazingly disgusting alien recipes created by a bunch of the students. Genius!

What’s better than arriving at a school for a visit and finding a breakfast cupcake party? Absolutely nothing, that’s what. Let me repeat: breakfast + cupcakes + party. It doesn’t get better than that.

How could the rest of the day measure up, you ask? Well, it did. It was a great day all around with a bunch of amazing readers. Thanks, Cayuga Heights!

Just before Christmas I had the chance to travel out to the tri-cities area in the southern part to Washington state to visit a bunch of schools. The landscape was not at all what I imagine when I think of Washington.
Everyone was so warm and welcoming, I really felt at home the whole time I was there. I visited fourteen schools and saw about ten thousand kids. (My apologies if I don’t remember all your names.) Check out some of these crazy aliens they made:

And just in case I run into some writer’s block down the road, the students at Marcus Whitman Elementary made me this amazing book of inspirational starting points, including story ideas about yetis, flying pigs, and kung foo cats. I’ll never run out of ideas again!

A really fun visit to J.D. George Elementary today, where I was blown away by the amazing preparations. These kids were ready for the visit! Just a few of the terrific projects below…

Mrs. Collins’ dessert is better than the illustration!

A real live Ben Franklinstein “Are Dogs From Mars?” science fair entry

A life-sized alien snack stand made by the 6th graders

This Friday I visited Miller Hill Sand Lake Elementary in Averill Park, NY and enjoyed managed to choke down one of the most disgusting lunches I’ve ever eaten. The fifth grade had a contest to design food that aliens might enjoy, and some of them went so far as to actually cook their creations.

There were black egg-like things, dripping eyeballs, green brain matter, and stuff no one could quite identify. I sampled (nearly) everything, and forty-eight hours later my stomach hasn’t sprouted any strange, alien creatures. I take that as a good sign.

Thanks to everyone at MHSL for the fun vista and the delicious disgusting lunch. I hope we can do it again sometime!

Just finished a really fun day/evening visit to A.W. Becker Elementary in Selkirk, NY, where the kids and teachers went all out. The big theme of the day was the magnum opus the boy cooks in Even Aliens Need Snacks, a dish he calls “galactic pudding.”

When I drew the picture for the book, I never imagined anyone would ever try to recreate it for an author brunch, but that’s exactly the challenge that Ms. Westerfeld from the school cafeteria took on. You can see the original and her interpretation below.

In addition, there were alien/monster cupcakes and galactic pudding (with grape eyeballs) for everyone who ordered a school lunch that day. All this was inspired by some terrific artwork by the kids. My thanks to Ms. Mulligan, Ms. Westervelt, Ms. Defeo, and  the PTA for all their work pulling it all together!