Bruce Coville

A few months ago, in an attempt to interest my daughter in reading something other than fairy stories, I brought home a Bruce Coville book (The Dragon of Doom). She wanted nothing to do with it, and did not even want to open the cover. Last week, in advance of Mr. Coville's visit to Ketchikan, I tried to interest her in another of his books. No sell (I'm sure she didn't get that stubbornness from me..)
But yesterday morning she sat with her classmates and watched Mr. Coville deliver the most fascinating, humorous, energetic and inspiring talk I've ever heard (I got to go, too!). His presentation was part storytelling, part writing workshop, and part comedy and the kids and adults in the room were enthralled. He had the kindergartners laughing at his monster impersonations. He had the 3rd graders laughing about nagging parents. He had the 6th graders laughing about his early rejection notices from publishers. And he had them all listening to the process that he goes through as he shapes a vague story idea in his head into a finished, published book. He was able to explain - in a way that a 7-year-old would understand, and a 12-year-old would find interesting - how he adds in important details, fleshes out characters, and creates foreshadowing in each successive draft for a story. He even explained to the kids how they could pick out these technical maneuvers as they read a story, and how to understand the framework behind the book.
How good was Bruce Coville's talk? The first question my daughter asked when she came home from school was "Can we read all of Bruce Coville's books?"