by Sylvia McNicoll | Feb 15, 2010 | Sylvia McNicoll
Jade only has a week to live or really a week to relive of her previous life. Except she changes everything by committing to a list, essentially a bucket list. On it is skydiving which you can’t do unless you’re 18 and she’s 14. So she goes indoor skydiving at Niagara Falls instead. Yes you have to be 18 to try it without a parent present but even a 7 year old can do it with her parents there. I figure it’s easier to get by the rules with someone else’s ID
than it would be actually jumping from an airplane. After the “skydive”, Aiden, the boy who will ultimately kill her, suggests the SkyRide.
Well you can research blogs and study advertisement on the ride all you want, you’re never going to feel the experience unless you do it. I would ordinarily never go on the SkyRide because I would expect to feel nauseous. But because of Jade’s list, I went on and it was lovely. Not scary, just a very slow turn up in the sky which gives you yet another view of The Falls.
After the SkyRide, I think I will try the ferris wheel on Centre Island too.
Next Jade’s dad will give her a surprise ride on a hotair balloon. It’s winter, there’s no way I can try it. I’m waiting for a friend to tell me all about her experience this year trying it.
by Sylvia McNicoll | Jan 28, 2010 | Sylvia McNicoll
Ahhh! I can’t stand it. I’m working on Death on Youtube
and keep gettings emails and comments on my website about how I don’t describe my characters in Caught in a Lie enough. I wrote the book ten years ago.
But of course I still don’t describe characters enough. So now I’m trying to picture every character in my new book and figure out what to say about them. I’m going insane.
Somebody must like my lack of character describing.
by Sylvia McNicoll | Jan 21, 2010 | Sylvia McNicoll
Here are the characters. You can tell a lot about the students by the stuffies they bring to school to do a character sketch. I’m not sure if you can make out Darth Vadar bear but he’s sitting there on the left, the stuffie in black. Tomorrow is our
last day together so I can read the stories about these guys in second draft.
We also worked on scripts and here a couple of the students perform a very popular one on a “didi”that a boy tried to convince his mom was a good pet.
They always look so industrious when they work on the computers but really they’re probably deciding on a font here. 
Tomorrow we say good bye and it’s always a little sad. I’m assuming it may be my last time in a Sudbury classroom and Alexander Public is pretty special to me. Slam Dunk Robot was written there with the students’ input.
But you never know. Maybe I’ll be back for a launch of Death on Youtube
by Sylvia McNicoll | Jan 21, 2010 | Sylvia McNicoll
One of my favourite things about Sudbury is Science North and this picture is hardly representative of the imposing round glass building perched on the edge of Lake Ramsey. It uses part of the rock structure that it sits on as a wall. And as you climb up the five levels, the floor winds around a whale skeleton. So cool. I enjoyed the 3d Wild Oceans Imax last night but also visited with the animals, who feed when I’m done with school. Hence the photo of Rosie. But I also learned about stem cell research in the Genome Club object theatre. And today I skated on the frozen lake behind the centre. I remembered my Ipod and listened to Hawaiian music as I toured the lake path twice, then the battery died. Too bad I forgot my camera. The sunlight was brilliant against the white snow and ice. You’ll just have to imagine it.
by Sylvia McNicoll | Jan 18, 2010 | Sylvia McNicoll
These are my grade 5 students at Alexander Public School along with their plucky teacher Mme Auger. In the morning I taught Mme Dimarco’s grade 6s but they don’t have such a beautiful view from their classroom. We were discussing description in a story as mood creator. Mrs. Auger said when it snowed last week it felt like they were in one of those glass globes that you shake. With all that light, sitting on top of the world I wonder if I can inspire them even more.
by Sylvia McNicoll | Jan 18, 2010 | Sylvia McNicoll
It’s a five hour drive to Sudbury but you don’t notice it when you’re listening to a nine hour unabridged book. It was called The Secret Between Us. How annoying when
at about the sixth disc, the voice gets garbled and the player goes silent.
Happily, I was close to Sudbury by then and heard that bit over again on my computer in the hotel. Then off I went to my first Imax Festival film called Beavers. And that’s what it was about. Who knew they made little whiny grunt sounds. And boy can the chop trees! I wonder how they film the critters and get them to just go about their business or maybe that accounts for the whiny grunts.
It was only about 40 minutes long so I topped the evening off with a long swim and soak in the hot tub, a little reading and then bed. Tomorrow Alexander Public School, and The Bears.
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