As I have mentioned in the past, each minute I spend at the Book Expo
is carefully planned out well in advance. In 2014 I was one of the first in
line to meet Lemony Snicket. This gave me
an extra 25 minutes which I did not factor into my thoroughly planned day. I looked up and saw a signing booth with a
relatively short line. When this happens
at an autograph booth you can either assume the author isn’t famous (yet) or
everyone is waiting for a chance to snag a picture with a really famous actor
or actress (spoiler alert: you rarely get a picture WITH them). The booth
belonged to Greg Pizzoli, an author I had never heard of. That’s pretty
embarrassing for a children’s librarian as he won an award for his first
picture book and it is my job to know of all award winners. There were only two
people on line so I hopped on and got an autograph of his book Number One Sam. A part of me wanted to
autograph it for my brother since his name is Sam but instead I had it made out
to my children. I totally regret not taking a picture with him, not just to
enhance this blog post but because I feel like he is my friend (even if he just
considers me his #1 fan). I told him I thought it was weird that I had never
heard of him since he was handing me his second book but I said “I’m going to
read your first book” (I didn’t until July of 2015). I DID however, share the
story of Number One Sam with everyone
I knew because I thought it was adorable.
A few months later I received a copy of Tricky Vic, Pizzoli’s next picture book which is a fascinating
biography of Robert Miller, the famous con man who “sold” the Eiffel Tower. I
was blown away by this book. I am not one to read biographies willingly (unless
it is written by Mindy Kaling or Tina Fey) but I knew this book was special.
Written in typical Pizzoli fashion, he took an interesting, lesser known
character in history and told a fascinating story on a level a first or second
grader could easily understand. The pictures are fun and interesting and
details on the pages were filled with newspaper clippings from the time which I
thought made this book amazing. I started to recommend it to everyone I knew
who needed Common Core nonfiction ideas and every reluctant reader I could
think of. Then I decided to take a leap and email Mr. Pizzoli and let him know
just how much I loved his book. When I would write fan mail back in 1996 with
my friends we never heard back from them (ever). Luckily, in 2015 there are
really easy ways to track down famous people and stalk them on Twitter. I was
so excited when I got a response from Mr. Pizzoli himself and not a publicist.
I then received a copy of his next title, Templeton Gets His Wish and decided it would be fun to send another
email to Mr. Pizzoli about how much my children loved reading the book with me.
When I got another response I knew I had a good thing going and I probably
shouldn’t mess it up. At this point, summer had just started and my kids were
eating watermelon all the time so I finally read and shared Mr. Pizzoli’s award
winning debut picture book, The Watermelon
Seed with my children. I am pretty sure I should have read it to them
sooner - they are obsessed with it and I read it about 10 times a day. I
obviously had to share that with my friend Mr. Pizzoli via email because I have
never seen my kids laugh as hard as they did when I read this book to them.
Greg Pizzoli really understands his young audience and they really
appreciate him. My children have a great relationship with Pizzoli’s characters,
and I don’t mind reading about crocodiles or Templeton or Sam multiple times a
day. I know that when my children are a little older, they will also get to
know Tricky Vic.
A Brief Summary of Greg Pizzoli’s picture books that were not detailed
above:
The Watermelon Seed –
An adorable story of a crocodile who loves watermelon and accidentally
swallows a seed. Yep, everyone’s biggest melon nightmare is his reality and it
is the perfect summer read aloud (and all year long). My kids have been telling
me things are growing in their guts for months now and it never gets old. I
especially love that he only uses four colors (red, green, black and white).
The simple images really capture the tone of the text and compliment it
beautifully.
Number One Sam –
Sam is the number one racecar driver until he loses a race. This
charming story about how Sam makes his way back to the top is extremely
relatable to children learning that you don’t always have to win the game to be
the best player on the team.
Templeton Gets His Wish –
Templeton is the oldest of four cats and he is tired of his parents
bossing him around and his siblings taking his toys so he wishes them away.
Once he realizes that sometimes you need a little guidance from your parents
and it is nice to have siblings to play with he makes a new wish and with it
comes a new attitude. At first I really didn’t think my two and four year old
would understand this story but they did and my son even pointed out that even
though sometimes you get angry at your family members you really still love
them no matter what. That is pretty impressive for a four year old, but I think
he really appreciated the story because of how it was presented.
Now you know all about my friendship with Greg Pizzoli. Share his
stories with your little ones and then email him all about your personal
experience.
