A shooting star puppet and a magic wand. 🙂 I made them and used them to perform during my Author Visit event at an elementary school.

A letter I received at the end of the event.

And also this. Letters from the kids about shooting stars, about their wishes, and about me who is coming to their school soon.  Lovely, imaginative drawings!

In preparation for another Author Visit event (this time at Christianne’s Lyceum of Literature and Art in Vancouver), I folded origami paper strips and made stars:

I took this basket and some additional strips of origami paper to the event. There, each child made his/her/their own magic wand and later took it home.

How to make one:

1. Wrap up a drinking straw with a strip (or two strips) of origami paper and then tape it with pieces of a scotch tape.
2. Attach a few origami paper stars to one end of the straw, using pieces of a scotch tape.

One day, I was taking a walk on a beach in Vancouver, daydreaming,  and this is what I thought I would do someday:  riding a shooting star and hanging out in space with my new friend.

When I came home, I wrote a long story about a girl who rides a shooting star, which – several years later – became my picture book Shooting Star Rider.