AFCC Day Two: Picture Books and After Reading Activities with Ying Chang Compestine and Dr George Jacobs,

Like a bird of prey circling one of its victims, it was only a matter of time before the talons of the sniffles, I felt coming on the previous night, snatched the last vestiges of my health yesterday morning.  Good thing is that I didn't have a fever and he said it wasn't viral!

So I downed some cough syrup and lemsip that was past its expiry date.  It's safe to do that, isn't it? Oh, well, if it isn't then perhaps my books will eventually sell well. Denise, I bequeath you sole distributorship of all my books and some of my original author illustrations! To  Felicia and Adan, I leave my treasured action-figure collection! It should be worth something some day.

My Star Lord Action figure.

Anyway I made it down safely and without incident to the library for the second day of AFCC, where I was scheduled to moderate Picture Books and Activities for After Reading  with best-selling and award-winning author Ying Chang Compestine and Dr George Jacobs. 

I met Ying when she was in town last year to talk about her brilliant book Revolution is Not a Dinner Party! And I only managed to meet Dr Jacobs a few days before. So we didn't much time to discuss how the session would unfold, but I didn't have anything to worry about as they are both fantastic speakers. 

We met up  at Closetful of Books festival bookstore before adjourning to the Multi-purpose room for their session . And the room was packed. And I mean totally packed!

The room was packed!! I fumbled over my introduction and then Ying  started her presentation.  She had the audience enthralled from the get go as she went through the picture books that she's written and the inspiration behind each of them. As a great cook who's hosted her own Cooking Show, it's no surprise that she's added the element of food to many of her stories.  I suppose you could say that they're absolutely delicious reads! 

 Ying ended her presentation with a video clip of her cooking one of her Chinese New Year delicacies with her son, Vinson. Incidentally, Ying and her son and co-author, Vinson, are shortlisted for the Golden Dragon Award in Hong Kong for their book 'The Secrets of the Terra-Cotta Soldier'.  It's also garnered interest from the entertainment world so you could be watching it on the big screen sometime in the near future! Congratulations, Ying and Vinson!

Then Dr Jacobs and his co-presenter Jiexin discussed the strategies that can be used to engage children after reading and I have to say I wish I could have used those strategies back when I was babysitting my niece and my nephews all those years ago.  

The session ended with lots of great questions and a lot of laughs too. I would tell you a lot more about it but, to tell you the truth, you should have bought an AFCC ticket and been there yourself. There's still time to do so. AFCC ends on Friday!