Generations of Alligator Pie devotees braved blustery winds and slushy sidewalks on Feb. 11 to attend Small Print Toronto’s first Children’s Story Jam, featuring Dennis Lee.
The event attracted dozens of four- to six-year-olds (and their parents, of course), who were treated to a preview of poems that will appear in Lee’s upcoming children’s book, Melvis and Elvis, due out from HarperCollins Canada in fall 2013.
Fuelled by cookies and juice boxes, the young audience was boisterously accepting of the new material. In fact, Lee, who was hoping to glean which poems were least successful in an attempt to whittle down the contenders, was bemused by the workshop. “I don’t know what to make of today,” he told Q&Q. “ It’s funny to sit around hoping to find that something has laid an egg and isn’t working, but that’s actually what I was hoping to do.”
Given the lineup of parents holding out battered, decades-old copies of Lee’s books for him to sign, perhaps he shouldn’t have been surprised by the positive response.
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- After the reading, kids were asked to draw pictures inspired by the new poems. Some stuck to more familiar territory, however. <i>Photo: Chris Wilkie</i>
- Drawing on a classic
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- Taking a turn in the hot seat, HarperCollins Canada executive editor for children's books Hadley Dyer reads a line from a poem, asking, "Are your feet too big?" <i>Photo: Chris Wilkie</i>
- Hadley Dyer asks for a show of feet
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- Lee keeps his squirmy audience of 30-odd kindergarteners and their parents entertained with his new poem, "Melvis and Elvis." <i>Photo: Chris Wilkie</i>
- Rapt audience
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- Dennis Lee tests out a new poem on his toughest critics: kids. <i>Photo: Chris Wilkie</i>
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- Dennis Lee holds court
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- (photo: Chris Wilkie)
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- The Academy of the Impossible's high-tech signage announces Small Print Toronto's first Story Jam. <i>Photo: Chris Wilkie</i>
- Chalk print Small Print
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