A Visit With Author Rob Buyea

A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to meet Rob Buyea. Each year the Cedar Valley brings in an author for fifth grade students to meet and hear speak.  This year Rob Buyea was the guest author.  

Unfortunately for me, I'm now working at the middle school level, which means I don't get included on the fifth grade meet the author field trip any more. So, I decided to attend his evening "show" which he does for the general public.  And I brought my fifth grade daughter along.

We're both fans of Buyea's work and after hearing him speak we love him more than ever.  Some authors are fantastic at crafting great novels. Buyea's novels are fantastic school stories, told by multiple narrators that really capture what it's like in a classroom.  However, some authors are not great speakers.  Buyea was a great speaker.  More accurately, he was a great storyteller.  He took great delight in sharing stories of his own teaching career and various students - and how these memories helped him create his novels.  

He had his entire audience laughing much of the night.  I wondered what my daughter would take away from this event.  The next morning she commented that she thinks she would have loved for him to have been her teacher.  He had great ideas, she said.  

Although she wasn't super excited about posing with Rob Buyea, she did allow me to get her picture with him, and even has the book he autographed on a special shelf she now has designated for books that she's had autographed.

It's always exciting to meet an author, especially one that is so fun to listen to. We both commented on our drive home how much we want to read all of his books. 

And after finishing off Harry Potter last week, we've now started the second book in Rob Buyea's Mr. Terupt series.

If you're looking for a way to motivate or excite a reader, an author visit definitely gets readers of all ages interested.