Make a Splash! with Kate Klise, Part 3

How can you make a splash this summer? It's easy, says Kate Klise, author of Regarding the Fountain. Kate was in Providence recently to kick off our summer reading program. While here, she shared with us some cool ideas for splash making. Here's idea #3:

3. Steal Someone's Identity.

 No, no, no. I'm not suggesting you steal someone's Social Security number and apply for a credit card using a false identity. What I am suggesting is that you start keeping someone else's diary. Why? Because let's face it: Keeping your own diary can be a bit dull. But you can write somebody else's diary. Write the diary of an 11-year-old prince who's been exiled from his native country and is forced to live with commoners. This is how you feel anyway, isn't it? "Awoke to another day of misery with these people who claim to be my parents. Can't they see I'm different? Don't they recognize my innate nobility? No, and so I'm forced to chew their tasteless porridge and clean out their appalling garage. But I have a plan that will put this injustice to rest once and for all." See how fun this could be? You can write The Diary of a Prince in Exile. It could be the first in your bestselling series. You could make a bigger splash than Jeff Kinney did with Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Write it this summer.

Scenes from the 1st Youth Reading Across RI Celebration at the State House

Do you have pictures from June 12th? Email them to youthrari@gmail.com to add them to the slide show!

Make a Splash! with Kate Klise, Part 2

How can you make a splash this summer? It's easy, says Kate Klise, author of Regarding the Fountain. Kate was in Providence recently to kick off our summer reading program. While here, she shared with us some cool ideas for splash making. Here's idea #2:

2. Become an Expert.

Pick someone you like and read everything he or she wrote. Did you like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Then become an expert on the author, Roald Dahl. Read Matilda. James and the Giant Peach. The BFG. Read about Dahl's life in England. Or did you love Everything on a Waffle better? Then become an expert on the author, Polly Horvath. Or become an expert on the Beatles. Read and listen to everything you can find by and about them. Or how about that leaky oil well in the Gulf of Mexico? What if you spent this summer becoming an expert on that? Figure out a way to prevent oil spills in the future - or a way to move people around without using oil and gas. The answers are almost certainly buried somewhere in your library. Figure it out. If you do, you might win a Nobel Prize? How's that for making a splash?

Cool Off with this Fountain Video!

Wilcox Fountain, Westerly Rhode Island from Youth RARI on Vimeo.

Wilcox Park in Westerly, RI was first designed by the Boston landscape architect Warren Manning, a former associate of Frederick Law Olmstead. The architect Frank Hamilton continued his work in plans for the addition of the pond and other varied terrain.

The Wilcox Memorial Fountain is composed of an octagonal water basin made from Westerly granite, with a bronze center statue of a woman holding a large scallop shell. The statue was designed and modeled by John Francis Paramino of Boston, and installed in Wilcox Park in 1929.

Make a Splash! with Kate Klise

For the next five days, we will be posting Kate Klise's speech from the Youth Reading Across Rhode Island/Summer Reading Kickoff held on June 12th at Rhode Island's State House. If you missed the event, you can still hear her message. And she has some great ideas for how each of you can Make A Splash this summer with reading and writing!

Make A Splash by Kate Klise

How can you make a splash this summer? It's easy, says Kate Klise, author of Regarding the Fountain. Kate was in Providence recently to kick off our summer reading program. While here, she shared with us some cool ideas for splash making. "You don't need money or credit cards or a driver's license or even a swimming pool," Kate said. "All you need is time and a library card. And if you have tose two things, you can make a HUGE splash this summer."

Here are five fun ideas from Kate:

1. Get Funny.

Do you like funny books? So do I. Do you know that you can be funny, too? It's a trick you can learn. You just have to go to the library and check out the Amelia Bedelia books by Peggy Parish. Remember Amelia Bedelia? When she's asked to dress the turkey, she puts a dress on the bird. When she's supposed to draw the drapes, she sketches the curtains. I loved those books when I was young. And so I re-read them all several years ago when I wanted to learn how to get funny. I realized that the secret to humor is often a misunderstanding. Mix-ups are comic gold - maybe not in real life, but certainly in books and movies. You can learn how writers use misunderstandings to make readers laugh. Because once you learn how to be funny, once you get funny, you can write a funny book. You could do it this summer. Whouldn't it be cool to go back to school in the fall with a funny book that you wrote? You would make a splash with your classmates!

Note: Click on the picture to enlarge.

Check out this Fountain!

If you happen to live in Newport, or are planning to visit, check out this fabulous fountain in the Newport Public Library's Children's Room in honor of the 2010 Youth RARI book, Regarding the Fountain by Kate Klise.

And, another view of the fun fountain. Doesn't it make you want to stop by, make a wish, and dream about your ideal fountain?

Promoting Summer Reading - Olneyville Style!

Here's a great photo of Toni Garcia from the Olneyville Library, Providence Community Library, promoting this year's summer reading program. Sign me up!

What are your ideas for the perfect fountain?

We asked kids who attended the Youth Reading Across Rhode Island celebration this past Saturday for their thoughts. This is what they had to say.

I think it would ...

have many flavors & colors coming out.

have natural exotic juices or ... SODA (I vote soda).

have a floral scent (rainbow of flowers).

be able to "dance" with music (like the one in Vegas) and we could run in and splash and dance along.

go 200 feet high.

go half a mile around.

we could play and splash in it and get wet to draw the fountain.

have a portable arcade under the fountain.

have crazy characters.

give you a wonderful imagination when you drank the water.

So, readers, what are your ideas? Let's continue the conversation in the comments!       
   

Way-Out Water Fountains at the Mt. Pleasant Library in Providence!

The program begins. The materials are on the table waiting for the creative fountain designers to arrive.




The fountain designers consider their materials and begin to work. Is there a future Florence Waters, fountain designer extraordinaire, at the Mt. Pleasant Library?






The fountains are taking shape ...

The creative, colorful, fanciful, fountains are complete! Florence Waters would be so pleased.





Thanks to the Mt. Pleasant Library children's staff for sharing these wonderful photos. + Click on each photo to enlarge it. +

Hope to see you on Saturday at the State House!

Promoting Youth RARI and the Summer Reading Program on the Rhode Show, Fox Providence

Thanks, Fox Providence, for welcoming us into your studios today to promote Youth Reading Across Rhode Island and the 2010 RI statewide summer reading program! Thank you especially to the Rhode Show staff for being so gracious to us this morning.

Thank you to McDonald's local owners/operators of RI for generously funding the copies of Regarding the Fountain we will distribute for free at the State House on Saturday!

Congratulations to Zach Turillo for the wonderful ways you help your neighbors, and for your appearance (in cartoon form) in the 2010 Summer Reading Booklet (printed thanks to McDonald's local owners/operators of RI and the wonderful printing company, SENCO Printing).

A Chat with Kate Klise, part 10

This interview was conducted by Emily Brown, Children's Librarian at the Mt. Pleasant Library in Providence, for the 2010 summer reading booklet.  

Question (Emily Brown): What advice can you give kids who want to become writers?

  Answer (Kate Klise):  Write! Write anything that appeals to you, whether it's a novel, a screenplay, a joke book, an opera, a video game. Just write. And if you can't think of anything to write, pick somebody you like, and write one letter to him or her every week for a year. This was the deal my mom made with me, my four sisters, and my brother. She and my dad paid for our college education. The only thing we had to do in exchange was write one letter home every week for all four years. I leaned a lot in college. But I learned just as much - maybe even more - by writing those letters home every week.

A Chat with Kate Klise, part 9

This interview was conducted by Emily Brown, Children's Librarian at the Mt. Pleasant Library in Providence, for the 2010 summer reading booklet.  

Question (Emily Brown): Do you have a favorite page or picture in Regarding the Fountain?

Answer (Kate Klise):  I always laugh when I see the picture on page 64 of the waitress slipping and spilling a pot of tea. The book was finished and ready to be printed with Sarah sent me that drawing with a note: "Can't we fit this in somewhere?" My first reaction was, "No! The book's done! Please stop sending me artwork!" But then an hour later, I thought: Wait. She's right. And that's when Florence had the spill-ended idea for the fountain.