Tonight at my youngest daughter’s middle school they were having a Science
Fair/Author Expo. Starting with the science side, I must say I was
impressed. There were no baking soda volcanos like when I was that
age. They had a vast array of experiments. There were: “Does Color
Seen Impact Memory”, “Does Barrel Length Effect Impacts of Guns”, “Do Pills or
Capsules Deliver Medicine More Efficiently”, “Which Teeth Whitener Works Best”,
“What Beverages Cause the Greatest Tooth Decay” and my favorite, “Which Energy
Drink Makes Plants Grow Best” (the winner far and away was Red Bull, in
case you wondered.) Presentations have come a long way since I colored on
Bristol board with pencil crayons. Photos and graphs abounded while some
set up laptops running a film of their experiment in progress. Science is
well and good but I wanted to see the booths about the authors. Part of
the reason was that my daughter was there but I also wanted to see what
tomorrow’s leaders were reading. You can imagine my delight when I saw
that close to ¾ of the writers chosen were in some form of Fantasy genre.
My own daughter chose J.K. Rowling. Others chose writers like J.R.R.
Tolkien, Suzanne Collins and Stephenie Meyer. They were represented by
multiple students as well. As part of the display, the student would dress
up as a character from the book. My daughter was dressed as a Hogwarts
student but I was pleased to see a number of characters with fake swords and
some form of magic. Fantasy is alive and well. I have always
contended that Fantasy will always have a place in literature. People want
to escape to another world where their troubles don’t exist. Fantasy is a
great place to just that. It was nice to see the different subsections of
the genre such as Urban, Paranormal and Epic all displayed with pride by their
student representatives. These are tomorrow’s Young Adult and the future
Adult readers. They are setting their foundation in the worlds of make
believe. I have said many times that Fantasy is for the dreamers out
there. We can learn something from these students. Imagination is the
first step to invention or “Thinking outside the box” as it were. By
honing their minds now we will have the future inventors of the world. All
their imaginative creations can be traced back to their readings in these
formative years. It makes me proud to be a Fantasy writer. Dream
big, students. Dream big.
Fair/Author Expo. Starting with the science side, I must say I was
impressed. There were no baking soda volcanos like when I was that
age. They had a vast array of experiments. There were: “Does Color
Seen Impact Memory”, “Does Barrel Length Effect Impacts of Guns”, “Do Pills or
Capsules Deliver Medicine More Efficiently”, “Which Teeth Whitener Works Best”,
“What Beverages Cause the Greatest Tooth Decay” and my favorite, “Which Energy
Drink Makes Plants Grow Best” (the winner far and away was Red Bull, in
case you wondered.) Presentations have come a long way since I colored on
Bristol board with pencil crayons. Photos and graphs abounded while some
set up laptops running a film of their experiment in progress. Science is
well and good but I wanted to see the booths about the authors. Part of
the reason was that my daughter was there but I also wanted to see what
tomorrow’s leaders were reading. You can imagine my delight when I saw
that close to ¾ of the writers chosen were in some form of Fantasy genre.
My own daughter chose J.K. Rowling. Others chose writers like J.R.R.
Tolkien, Suzanne Collins and Stephenie Meyer. They were represented by
multiple students as well. As part of the display, the student would dress
up as a character from the book. My daughter was dressed as a Hogwarts
student but I was pleased to see a number of characters with fake swords and
some form of magic. Fantasy is alive and well. I have always
contended that Fantasy will always have a place in literature. People want
to escape to another world where their troubles don’t exist. Fantasy is a
great place to just that. It was nice to see the different subsections of
the genre such as Urban, Paranormal and Epic all displayed with pride by their
student representatives. These are tomorrow’s Young Adult and the future
Adult readers. They are setting their foundation in the worlds of make
believe. I have said many times that Fantasy is for the dreamers out
there. We can learn something from these students. Imagination is the
first step to invention or “Thinking outside the box” as it were. By
honing their minds now we will have the future inventors of the world. All
their imaginative creations can be traced back to their readings in these
formative years. It makes me proud to be a Fantasy writer. Dream
big, students. Dream big.
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