Book Signing

National Library Week Book Event at Barnes & Noble Perkins Rowe – Friday, April 8, 2011

by Dianne on April 19, 2011

4-8-11 Dianne with the winner of the Design a Dragon contest

Friends:

On Friday, April 8, 2011, I had a big book event at Barnes & Noble Perkins Rowe in Baton Rouge. To celebrate the start of National Library Week, Barnes & Noble and Denham Springs Junior High had an art exhibit. The art teacher in charge, Sharon Loyd, a good friend of mine, had the students create mythological creatures inspired by Marita Gentry’s dragon art in our book, There’s A Dragon in the Library.

4-8-11 The wall of dragon art at Barnes & Noble Perkins Rowe in Baton Rouge

The students did such an amazing job!! I was asked to be the judge of the contest. Here is the winning illustration. It is done by Sarah Fontenot, in the 6th grade. I love the paisley pattern on the dragon and how she cleverly incorporated all of my books into the picture! Way to go, Sarah!

4-8-11 The Winning Entry by Sarah Fontenot for the Mythological Creatures Art Contest using my book, There's A Dragon in the Library, as inspiration

I told the story of There’s a Dragon in the Library with lots of great helpers.

4-8-11 Telling the story of There's a Dragon in the Library

It was a fun event and I was so honored!! Thank you Barnes & Noble, Sharon Loyd, Sarah Fontenot, and Denham Springs Junior High. You rock!

Until next time…

Warmly, Dianne

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Hammond Eastside Elementary Author Visit – Friday, April 1, 2011

by Dianne on April 19, 2011

4-1-11 Dianne takes a picture with a first grade class

Friends:

On Friday, April 1, 2011, I visited Hammond Eastside Elementary, courtesy of my friend and first grade teacher, Michelle Cardaronella. Here I am performing The Gigantic Sweet Potato with students from my first show.

4-1-11 Performing The Gigantic Sweet Potato at Hammond Eastside Elementary

I saw two groups of students in different grade level seatings. I love performing Madame Poulet and Monsieur Roach with the students and they had so much fun!

4-1-11 Performing Madame Poulet and Monsieur Roach at Hammond Eastside Elementary

I love seeing them on the ground with their little roach legs sticking up at the end of the story. It’s hilarious!

4-1-11 Roaches on the ground in Madame Poulet and Monsieur Roach story

I performed Madame Poulet and Monsieur Roach with both groups and I love the expression of this third grade student, who played the part of Monsieur Roach!

4-1-11 Madame Poulet has words with Monsieur Roach

After my shows, it was time to sign books for the students. There were long lines of students waiting to have their books signed. It’s always a treat for me to interact with the students one on one during a book signing!

4-1-11 Students line up for book autographs

I made sure that all the students received bookmarks and that all the teachers received reading posters. Thank you, Michelle, for such an enjoyable visit!

Until next time…

Warmly, Dianne

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South Carolina Association of School Librarians Conference – March 10-11, 2011

by Dianne on March 14, 2011

3-9-11 SCASL 2011 Welcome basket in my room

Friends:

I’ve had some technical difficulties with my photos from my new camera so I only have a few shots on this blog from my iPhone. Last week, on Thursday and Friday, March 10 and 11, 2011, I was a featured author and speaker at the SCASL (South Carolina Association of School Librarians) conference. I was picked up at the airport by Drucie Gullion and Angie Bardin. They were so sweet and so much fun! When I arrived at my room, a welcome basket was waiting. Very classy!

On my first day of the conference, my first workshop was “Story Safari,” a workshop about the basics of storytelling. It was hilariously fun, especially the storytelling exercise in which groups had to act out animals in dire situations such as the one below.

3-10-11 Story Safari workshop participants acting out three animals stuck inside a boat adrift at sea

At the SCASL Awards luncheon, I was amazed by the incredibly gorgeous “vases” in the middle of the tables. They were vases made out of books that were handcut to look like vases! WOW!

3-10-11 Gorgeous handmade book vase centerpiece

After taking an amazing workshop on “Handmade Books” by Susan Gaylord, it was time to sign autographs. My friend, the amazing Kitt (“Kee-yit”) Lisenby, was at the head of the line. She is such a wonderful person!

3-10-11 Dianne's autograph line

My second workshop of the day was my “Tangram Tales” workshop. I taught the workshop participants how to create Tangram sets without a pattern, how to manipulate the geometric shapes to create pictures, and how to perform a “Tangram Story Theater.” They even invented new Tangrams!

3-10-11 Gorgeous handmade book vase centerpiece

On Day 2 of the conference, I delivered a talk at the Author’s Award Luncheon on how important libraries have been in my life and ended with the story of “The King’s Advisor,” from Handmade Tales. The talented author and illustrator, Joe Kulka, was awarded the Picture Book of the Year award. What a great guy!

3-11-11 The audience at the SCASL 2011 Author Awards Luncheon

I connected with old friends (Thanks Kitt, Jed & Kristen!), made new friends (Drucie, Angie, Susan, Joe, and so many others), and had a fantastic time. Thank you SCASL for honoring me with a return visit!

Until next time…

Warmly, Dianne

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Book Launch Party! There’s a Dragon in the Library at Cherry Books in Thibodaux, Louisiana – Saturday, February 19, 2011

by Dianne on February 20, 2011

2-19-11 There's a Dragon in the Library fans at Cherry Books

Friends:

This past Saturday, Marita and I launched our new book, There’s a Dragon in the Library, at Cherry Books in Thibodaux, Louisiana. We had a big bayou bash!

2-19-11 Telling the story of There's a Dragon in the Library at Cherry Books, Thibodaux, LA

The story was fun and interactive. Marita drew the dragon as I had all the kids act out the parts with puppets.

2-19-11 The whole cast of There's a Dragon in the Library at Cherry Books, Thibodaux, LA

As usual, Marita’s drawing was AMAZING!! She is such a talented illustrator. I am so lucky to work with her!

2-19-11 Marita Gentry with her Dewey the Dragon drawing from There's a Dragon in the Library at Cherry Books, Thibodaux, LA

Afterward, the kids made mini accordion dragon puppets. They came out sooo cool!

2-19-11 Avid fan, Jaden B., proudly displays his accordion dragon puppet. Too cool!

We even had a fan come who matched the cover of our book! Precious!

2-19-11 A fan at Cherry Books matches the book!

Thank you to everyone who came to help us celebrate our new book. A special thanks to the Breaux family, who came from St. Mary Parish! You all rock! Thank you also to Cherry Books for your support!!

Books are for reading, not for eating! Until next time…

Warmly, Dianne

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Book Launch Party! There’s a Dragon in the Library, Barnes & Noble Citiplace in Baton Rouge – Friday, February 18, 2011

by Dianne on February 20, 2011

2-18-11 Dianne de Las Casas, Dewey the Dragon & Marita Gentry sign books

Friends:

This past Friday, Marita Gentry and I launched our new book, There’s a Dragon in the Library in Baton Rouge at Barnes & Noble Citiplace. We had a HUGE crowd with lots of fans and friends there! We began the evening dedicating a copy of the book to a very special boy, Brayden, Marita’s grand-nephew, who was the inspiration for the paintings of Max, the main character in the story. He was so cute!

2-18-11 Dedicating a book to Brayden, Marita Gentry's great-nephew and inspiration for the character of Max at the Baton Rouge launch of There's a Dragon in the Library

Marita began her illustration as I told the story with the help from kids in the audience. She started by drawing the head of Dewey the Dragon.

2-18-11 Illustrator Marita Gentry begins her live illustration by drawing the dragon's head

It was tons of fun having the kids participate in the story. I absolutely love the interaction with my audiences!

2-18-11 Dianne with Dewey the Dragon from There's a Dragon in the Library

Marita’s illustrations are always amazing but this time she did a live illustration in FULL color! So loving this dragon!

2-18-11 Marita Gentry's finished dragon in full color! WOW!

After the story, all the kids who participate in the story on stage came up to take their big final bow.

2-18-11 The whole cast of There's a Dragon in the Library at Barnes & Noble Citiplace

Afterward, we had a scavenger hunt and gave away tons of prizes: book bags, a reading pillow and Marita’s illustration.

2-18-11 There's a Dragon in the Library Prize Winners (Photo by Dianne de Las Casas via iPhone)

Abby Hannie, the CRM of Barnes & Noble Citiplace is amazing. She had dragon face painting for the kids and even had little wings for them! Soooo cute!

2-18-11 Dragon Face Painting at the Barnes & Noble Citiplace book launch of There's a Dragon in the Library (Photo by Dianne de Las Casas via iPhone)

Even the staff got into the spirit of things! Thank you so much, Nick! You rock!!

2-18-11 Nick, a Barnes & Noble Citiplace staff member, gets into the spirit of There's a Dragon in the Library w his dragon face! (photo by Dianne de Las Casas via iPhone)

We also had the kids create paper bag dragon puppets and they came out soooo cute!

2-18-11 A fan makes a paper bag dragon puppet. Smokin' hot fun! (Photo by Dianne de Las Casas via iPhone)

Kid Chef Eliana got to sign books too! Yay!

2-18-11 Eliana with her book, Eliana Cooks! Recipes for Creative Kids

We had an awesome time and everyone had so much fun! Barnes & Noble Citiplace is so wonderful. Thank you so much, Abbie! I also want to thank a very special person. Alyson G., a longtime fan and friend, took all the pictures unless otherwise noted. I forgot my camera and Aly came to the rescue! Woo hoo, Aly!!

2-18-11 Alyson Guidry, our event photographer, with her baby dragon!

Thank you to everyone who came out to support me and Marita as we launched our fourth book together, There’s a Dragon in the Library! We <3 you!

Until next time…

Warmly, Dianne

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There’s a Dragon in the Library Book Launch Party at Octavia Books – Saturday, February 12, 2011

by Dianne on February 14, 2011

2-12-11 The AMAZING There's a Dragon in the Library cake at our Octavia Books Launch Party

Friends:

This past Saturday was our book launch party for There’s a Dragon in the Library, illustrated by Marita Gentry. We had our fabulous launch at our favorite indie bookstore in New Orleans – Octavia Books. It was our largest book launch at Octavia to date! There were so many people in attendance that some people couldn’t see the performance!

2-12-11 The awesome audience at Octavia Books

I had an amazing dragon cake made (Thanks, Lana and Dana) and it was DELICIOUS!

2-12-11 The Dragon cake table

Here is a close-up of that up-ROAR-ious cake, which was chocolate cake with raspberry filling. YUM!

2-12-11 A close-up of the Dragon cake!

As is our signature method, Marita and I entertained the audience with interactive storytelling and live illustration.

2-12-11 Audience participation is so much fun and Marita's dragon comes to life on paper!

I made puppets out of oven mitts, which came out sooooo cute. The templates for the puppets are on my website in the book activities. Marita did such a marvelous job on the puppets.

2-12-11 The oh so cute boys in my story, There's a Dragon in the Library. Marita is illustrating and Eliana is page-turning.

This time, instead of drawing several illustrations, Marita decided to do something different. Because the dragon is a very complicated character to draw, she decided to draw and color one enormous dragon. It came out sooo cute!

2-12-11 The whole cast comes up for a final bow

Here is a close-up of Marita’s illustration. It’s a little blurry because there were so many people that my photographer (hubby Antonio) couldn’t get close enough to even zoom in on the picture. But you can see how cute it is! Marita is incredibly talented! I’m so lucky to team with such a great illustrator!

2-12-11 A close-up of the Marita's finished illustration of Dewey the Dragon in There's a Dragon in the Library

Afterward, the children participated in a scavenger hunt, looking for a dragon tale hidden amongst the books. The winner received a reading pillow and blanket. We gave away lots of prizes including book bags, a Dragon accordion puppet, and a signed dummy of our book. Then the kids made the cutest Dewey the Dragon paper bag puppets.

2-12-11 The cutest dragon puppet with the cutest little boy!

Marita and I signed books as Judith Lafitte and Tom Lowenburg, the bookstore owners, served cake and dragon juice.

2-12-11 Dianne de Las Casas signing books with a tiara on! Viva la Diva! LOL

Caitlin Smith with Pelican Publishing Company stopped by to say hi and check in on our party.

2-12-11 Dianne de Las Casas, Caitlin Smith from Pelican Publishing, and Marita Gentry

Marita and I have such sweet fans and friends. Jon and Jordyn have been to every single one of my book launch parties!! They deserve a crown just for that!!

2-12-11 Dianne with favorite fans, Jordyn and Jon

The party was such a smashing success. We owe so much to King Tom and Queen Judith of Octavia Books, our benevolent rulers! :) Thank you, your majesties! Thank you to everyone: fans, friends, and family who came to support us as we unveiled our fun new book, There’s A Dragon in the Library. We even had someone drive in from as far away as Lafayette! WOW!

2-12-11 The Cutie Crew with their paper bag dragon puppets

It was a fantastic day and we look forward to many more book launch parties at Octavia Books.

Until next time…

Warmly, Dianne

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Snuggle Buggle Literacy Night at Strehle Elementary – Thursday, February 10, 2011

by Dianne on February 13, 2011

2-10-11 Performing Mama's Bayou at Snuggle Buggle Night at Strehle Elementary in Avondale, LA

Friends:

It was a great night at Strehle Elementary. I was invited to do a presentation for their “Snuggle Buggle” night. Kids come to school in their pajamas and then later to the 6pm event. They were served spaghetti and made crafts at stations centered around my books.

2-10-11 Sweet Potato Pals that the students made from my book, The Gigantic Sweet Potato, at Snuggle Buggle Night at Strehle Elementary in Avondale, LA

I performed Mama’s Bayou and The Gigantic Sweet Potato.

2-10-11 Performing The Gigantic Sweet Potato at Snuggle Buggle Night at Strehle Elementary in Avondale, LA

It was a ton of fun and my little girl, Eliana, even came in her pajamas! :)

2-10-11 Dianne with Taylor, Kayla & Eliana at Snuggle Buggle Night at Strehle Elementary in Avondale, LA

At the end, I was presented with a sweet gift of Tulips!

2-10-11 Dianne with Patti Waddell, Principal, at Snuggle Buggle Night at Strehle Elementary in Avondale, LA

Thank you to Patti Wadell, Principal; Betty Brodtmann, Librarian; the PK Krewe: Pat, Jennifer, Tina and Katie; and all the teachers and staff of Strehle. I love you guys!

Until next time…

Warmly,
Dianne

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Louisiana PreK/K Conference – Wednesday, January 26, 2011

by Dianne on January 29, 2011

1-26-11 Teachers do the cut and tell tale, Joseph Had a Little Overcoat at Dianne's Handmade Tales session at the Louisiana PreK-K Conference

Friends:

On Wednesday, January 26, 2011, I presented two professional development sessions at the Louisiana Pre-K/Kindergarten conference sponsored by the Louisiana Department of Education. My first session was “Handmade Tales: Stories to Make and Take” full of simple cut and tell and draw and tell tales. I began with “Joseph Had an Overcoat” (pictured above). Then I taught the teachers how to do a couple of draw and tell tales: “How to Catch a Pest in 7 steps” and “The Emperor’s Dragon.”

1-26-11 The Emperor's Dragon, a draw and tell tale from Dianne's Handmade Tales session at the Louisiana PreK-K Conference

They really loved making the snowflakes out of coffee flakes in the story, “Papa’s Teepee.”

1-26-11 A snow blizzard by PreK & K teachers in Dianne's Handmade Tales session

I ended the workshop with the story, “The Magic Star” for all of those “teaching stars” in the room.

1-26-11 Teaching stars in Dianne's Handmade Tales session

It was so much fun and the teachers really enjoyed the session. In fact, it was overfull; people were sitting on the floor and they had to close the session. My next session was just as full. There were 50 people waiting outside the door before it began! My second session was “Louisiana Picture Book Make and Takes.” I told excerpts of my books and showed them some fun accompanying book activities perfect for PreK and Kindergarten students. I featured activities for my books, Madame Poulet and Monsieur Roach, Mama’s Bayou, The Gigantic Sweet Potato, and The Cajun Cornbread Boy. Holly Stone-Barker, illustrator of Mama’s Bayou was on hand to help out and sign books. She is such an amazing artist!

1-26-11 Teachers make Madame Poulet and Monsieur Roach story shakers in Dianne's Louisiana Picture Book Make and Take session

After my session, I signed books and there was quite a line. Thank you to all the patient teachers!! A special thank you to Holly and her friend, Kathy, for all their help. I would never have been able to do it by myself. Kathy was a spectacular salesperson!

1-26-11 Dianne signing books for teachers at the Louisiana PreK-K Conference in Baton Rouge

It was a fantastic day and I had a wonderful time! A special thank you to Loren Barrios, Nicholy Johnson, and all the staff from the Department of Education, Early Childhood Division. Another special thank you to some amazing teachers: Tina Champagne, Katie Tilly, Joyce Muller and Alecia Rabalais!

Until next time…

Warmly, Dianne

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Book Signing: Sam’s Clubs in Kenner & Slidell, LA – Saturday, January 22, 2011

by Dianne on January 24, 2011

1-22-11 Signing books at Sam's Club in Kenner, LA

Friends:

My Saturday was spent signing books at Sam’s Clubs in Kenner and Slidell, Louisiana. I had a great time at both stores. In Kenner, one lady gushed about how her grandchildren loved The Cajun Cornbread Boy so much that she had a recording of them singing, “Run, cher, run as fast as you can. You can’t catch me… I’m full of cayenne!”

At the same store, one of the employees told me that her son loved me so much.. I am his favorite author. :) He is a student in 4th grade at Bissonet Plaza Elementary, one of the schools I visit every year.

It was a great day and it’s wonderful to hear how my books touch people’s lives. I love what I do!!

Until next time…

Warmly, Dianne

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Book Signing: Barnes & Noble Citiplace in Baton Rouge, LA – Friday, December 10, 2010

by Dianne on December 13, 2010

12-10-10 Dianne de Las Casas signs books at Barnes & Noble Citiplace in Baton Rouge

Friends:

On Friday night, Kid Chef Eliana and I had a book signing at Barnes & Noble Citiplace in Baton Rouge. Kid Chef Eliana was so adorable in her chef uniform and sold quite a few books!

12-10-10 Kid Chef Eliana signs books at Barnes & Noble Citiplace in Baton Rouge

After a vote by the audience, I performed The Gigantic Sweet Potato. It was a ton of fun! :)

12-10-10 Dianne de Las Casas tells The Gigantic Sweet Potato at Barnes & Noble Citiplace in Baton Rouge

The Barnes & Noble staff was dressed for pajama story time and Cajun Cornbread Boy took a picture with this adorable penguin!

12-10-10 A Barnes & Noble staff member in penguin jammies dances with Cajun Cornbread Boy

I had a blast and Abby Hannie, the Community Relations Manager of this Barnes & Noble, is a sweetheart!! I just LOVE doing events at her store!

Until next time…

Warmly, Dianne

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