Today we celebrated Meet-the-Author Day with a wonderful visit by Hong Kong based children's author and illustrator Ellen WY Leou. Ms. Leou just recently published the third book in her series about Lulu the Hong Kong Cat: The Hong Kong Time Machine. Our students, many of whom are already fans of Lulu's adventures, were very much looking forward to meeting the author and hearing this new story.
Our PK2 students were the first to listen to Lulu's time-machine adventure. As you can see from the photos below, they were an attentive audience, fascinated by Lulu's time traveling into Hong Kong's past. In addition to enjoying the story and a short video of the real Lulu, students were especially curious to learn what Ms. Leou uses to draw her illustrations. She told our students that she uses, pens, pencils, colored pencils, water colors, Chinese painting colors.
Next were our grade 2 students and their PK1 buddies. Even though a really large group, Ms. Leou (and of course Lulu the Hong Kong Cat) did a wonderful job in capturing also their attention. After the story, our grade 2 students had many questions, one of the most pressing being whether Lulu was still alive. The answer that Lulu is still alive, almost 20 years old now, was greeted with much relief and big smiles. Our students also wanted to know whether it is fun being an author and illustrator. Ms. Leou told them that yes, that it is great fun but also lots of hard work. There were also questions regarding the time machine and whether it could be real and the time of the story's setting (Hong Kong in the 1940s/1950s). I think most surprised were students to find out that Ms. Leou taught herself how to draw, that she wasn't really good at the beginning, but with lots of practice and hard work became such a skillful illustrator.
Then it was our Kindergarteners turn. They had questions right from the start (about the style of the book for example), even before Ms. Leou had a chance to tell her story. Students also made many connections to the pictures they saw. One of our students shared that he had seen a room as depicted in the story in a museum in Hong Kong. Another student recognized in a picture of modern Hong Kong the building in which his dad works. And several students shared about the pets they have, to then be encouraged by Ms. Leou to write stories about them.
Our grade 3 got to meet Ms. Ellen during their art lesson. She shared with students how she goes about creating her stories, in particular the illustrations, starting by making thumbnail sketches on a storyboard. A lot of research goes into the making of her books, for the story itself as much as for the illustrations. It was interesting to see how she uses photographs of places and people to model the creation of the background and characters in her stories. I could tell that students were very interested in learning more about the tools and materials she uses. An architectural pen seems to be one of her favorite tools as it allows her to create all the little details and intricate patterns in her illustrations. In addition to learning about her illustrations and techniques, students were curious to know if there was another job she could imagine doing. Ms. Leou told us that she was at first an architect but that she likes writing very much and therefore always wants to be a writer.
During lunchtime, grade 4 and grade 5 students had the opportunity to stop by the library to have a chat with the author. It was beautiful seeing such a big turn out and even more listening to the wonderful conversations between our students and the author. You could literally feel the inspiration in the air and I heard so many great ideas for stories being shared. Ms. Leou told students that she has always been a big reader and that already as a child she loved checking out lots and lots of books from the library (this might be the reason libraries have a special place in Lulu's newest adventure - I loved it!). She also shared some insights about the work of an editor, the publishing of books in Hong Kong, the way she works on her books and more.
The last session of the day took place again in the art room. This time, our grade 1 students got a chance to learn about how an illustrator works and to try out a few new ideas for their own book making and illustrating. I could tell that students were especially intrigued by the thumbnail sketches Ms. Leou makes first, the way she lets her characters show their emotions and how she tests colors before adding them in small amounts to her illustrations. Our first graders were keen on trying this out right away and it was beautiful seeing their enthusiasm and creativity in doing so. I could tell it was a special treat for them learning and working with two artists: Ms. Leou and our art teacher Ms. Sarah.
Well, it was a wonderful day, full of inspiration for reading, writing and illustrating, thanks to our amazing visiting author & illustrator Ellen Leou. If you would like to find out more about her, visit her website or the website of Lulu the Hong Kong Cat or get one of her beautiful picture books for your own collection. (Order forms are available through the Primary library.)
Thank you, Ms. Leou, for this wonderful visit and for the beautiful stories and pictures you shared with us!
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