Words From the Wise #8 -- Olivia

Today's feature was quite a surprise for me.  I happened to just run into Olivia, from the book, Annie and Me.  I hadn't seen if her a while, and invited her for vanilla ice cream and an interview.  She jumped at the opportunity to meet with me.  We sat down at the park and had a chat.  Enjoy!

1.  Olivia, it is so good to see you again!  What have you been doing since the release of your book, Annie and Me at the beginning of February?


It is good to see you too.  My life has been so busy since the release of the book.  I have been visiting schools all over the country.  Some of them have been right there in the classroom, and one was even over the computer with this fancy computer program called Skype.  I have shared my story with children and answered their questions.  Many of their questions are about what it is like to have a friend move away, and many of their questions have been about how to make a book, especially an ebook like Sandi and Barb did on uTales.








2.  Your story is written about Annie's move 5 years ago.  How has your friendship with Annie changed since her move?


Annie and I are still great friends.  We talk on the phone, send emails, and visit each other occasionally.  It is hard when you don't see someone everyday, but that gives us more to talk about when we do see each other.  Things are not as easy as just going to each others' houses.  We have to rely upon our parents to get us together, and parents have very busy schedules.  When we do see each other, we like to play some of the games that we used to play when we were younger, but we also do new things too. Now we talk about school--we were only in kindergarten before and now that we are in 5th grade, we have a lot more to discuss.






3.  What do you think of illustrator, Barb Dargony's portrayal of you in the book?


Barb did a fantastic job!  We had met a few times before she drew the illustrations, and she watched my facial expressions and how I move.  I think that the pictures look just like me, and she got Annie's hair down perfectly!  I would love to see Barb again to show her how much Annie and I have both changed.  We are a lot taller now, and my hair is much longer than it used to be in kindergarten.  Annie doesn't need her mom to put her hair up in pigtails anymore.  She usually wears it in french braids that she does herself.






4.  What are some of your favorite books to read?


I have started reading historical fiction and mysteries.  I also like to read books about strange facts, like the world records books--they always amaze me.  I mean, who would think up putting a bunch of tennis balls in their mouth and then setting a world record about it?  Is anyone else really trying that?  I have started to read a lot on my Kindle.  Isn't that funny how my story is an ebook too?  But my bookshelf  at home is pretty full with paper books.  I share them a lot with my younger sisters.  I like to recommend to them books that I liked when I was their age.






5.  Now that you have been featured in Words From the Wise, who else might you like to see interviewed here?


I would love to see some of my favorite authors--Eric Carle, Judy Blume, Roald Dahl (I know that he died a long time ago, but it would still be interesting to read about him).  I would also like to see people who are involved with making books like publishers and editors too.  I would like to learn more about he book making process.


Thank you so much for interviewing me today.  I really am glad that we ran into each other.