Walking the Halls

there's some cool art out there

This week, I got to roam the halls of seven different elementary schools, doing schools visits with hundreds of kids. It is always a thrill and a privilege to visit with students. I love doing author visits, love the unexpected questions and sincere interest. But what took me by surprise was the creativity on the walls. It was incredible. Look at these cool cityscapes.

And then there were the butterflies. We have a phrase, “strong like a butterfly,” that really resonates with readers.

Ms. Sandoval was an incredible librarian, the kids love her, and look at those 3D butterflies. I can’t imagine how long it took to make this! And then there were these butterflies, made from clothespins and painted coffee filters. Check out the shoelace nests in the tree.

What do butterflies have to do with this story of a girl who traveled from Rwanda to Texas to have surgeries on her club feet? Lots! Butterflies fly three thousand miles to migrate from Canada and North America to Mexico, and Rebeka flew 8,504 miles from her home to ours.

This slide always gets lots of gasps and “whoa’s” as kids imagine leaving their home and family to have surgeries in a another country where they don’t speak the language, living with a family they’d never met. That’s what Rebeka did. Rebeka’s cast also resembled a chrysalis, and inside it, transformation was happening.

The Richardson chapter of Altrusa were the ones who got the grant to buy books for every school and pay my expenses. One of their awesome projects if putting Kindness Libraries into schools, stocked with books that model kindness. At one school we were greeted with a Kindness Tree made from tons of hearts, each one unique.

How cool is it to celebrate kindness like this? In addition to the art, I was struck by a couple of simple but profound messages that really resonated with me. Africa New Life is the student sponsorship organization that got Rebeka into school at age nine, and its founder, Charles Mugisha often says, “You may not be able to change the world, but you can change the world for one.” I saw this in the teacher’s bathroom at Yale Elementary.

And outside a classroom I saw this.

Which reminded me of one of my favorite slides in my presentation.

I ask the kids, “What if you had one chance to change your life?” Sometimes that chance comes just once, and we have to be brave enough to take it. They won’t be doing what Rebeka did, but every single one of them gets up in the morning and has a choice to make. Will they choose joy? I saw many smiles this week. Many hands eagerly raised, wide eyed, totally engaged with Rebeka’s story.

Being in the halls, libraries, cafeterias and auditoriums gave me great joy and much hope for the future. I was inspired by the kids and the adults in their world that went to such effort to make their days a little more beautiful. May we all do the same.

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Happy Little Things

• I got to see old high school friends while in Richardson who I haven’t seen in years. It is good to connect to my roots. They are part of my happiness tree.

• I got to see some family, too, and my niece’s daughter Daisy, adorned with tulle princess skirt and iridescent shoes grabbed my hand in her little one as if we were the best of friends. It was the best of feelings.

• Kids colored butterflies from the book and they fluttered down the halls, each one bright and beautiful.

  

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My name is Meredith Davis, and I’m an award winning writer of middle grade books, a former indie bookseller, founder of the Austin chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and graduate of Vermont College of Fine Arts with an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. Find teaching resources and author visit information on my website at www.meredithldavis.com. Mother to three, Nana to two, I live with my husband and a crazy doodle in Austin, Texas.