Hong Kong International Young Readers Festival Day # 2

I awoke at 4am on the second morning in Hong Kong ar 4am, after approximately four hours of sleep and spent the rest of the morning going through my presentation: Head in the Clouds: My Journey in Picture Book Writing. It was a 75 minute talk and I hoped that my voice would hold up. At 8am Auntie Susanna joined me for breakfast  before we departed for the Hong Kong Central Library.

My talk was being held in the library's auditorium, and we were expecting about 82 students. There was a bit of difficulty hooking my the computer to the screen at first but thankfully that all got sorted out before the students started arriving.

Susanna helped me set up the stickers, bookmarks that I ususally hand out to students during my workshops and talks and when we were done, the students started arriving.  It is rather daunting talking to a large group of people and I can get terribly nervous- so I tend to talk to the kids like I'm one of them. As any one who knows me will say "Dave, you still haven't grown up, you're  a big kid."

Susanna once again was a tremendous help, throughout the talk, especially when my voice started to fade. I hope the kids had a good time because I definitely enjoyed their questions and their company. Thankfully I paced myself so that I did not speak to fast or rush and I ended the session by handing out bookmarks and stickers.

That night we were invited for dinner with festival chair Christine Van, her charming daughter Madeleine and Dr Pam McIntyre. It was a fantastic dinner with even better company. then we headed back to the hotel to rest up for our last workshop

Dr Pam McIntyre and our gracious host Christine Van

Madeleine Van and me