Author and Illustrator Vera Brosgol Visits AISV
This week, our Elementary and Middle School students welcomed visiting author and illustrator Vera Brosgol! Sponsored by the Annual Fund, this special visit offered our students a wonderful opportunity to connect with and learn from an acclaimed storyteller through presentations, book signings, and lively Q&A sessions.
In preparation for the visit, students across all Elementary and Middle School grade levels read Vera’s books. PK through Grade 3 read Memory Jars, Grades 4 and 5 read Be Prepared, and Middle School students chose one of the following books: Be Prepared, Return to Sender, Plain Jane and the Mermaid, or Anya’s Ghost.
During her presentations throughout the week, Vera shared the inspiration behind her books, reflecting on how she draws from personal experience to craft complex, engaging stories. With the older Middle School students, Vera reflected on her experience as an immigrant to the U.S. from Russia and how those experiences have shaped the stories she writes, her time working on feature animated films, and her creative process (she prefers drawing on paper vs on the ipad, like many of our students).
Students loved asking her questions and taking part in hands-on drawing exercises, sketching their own memory jars, creating comic strips, and being selected for character drawings by Vera. Our Elementary School students also presented Vera with framed Memory Jar drawings. From all of the smiles, it was evident that our students really connected with Vera and her work!
More about Vera Brosgol
Brosgol was born in Moscow and moved to the United States when she was five years old. She earned a diploma in classical animation and spent many years working in feature animation. Her work includes storyboarding for films such as Coraline, ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, and Kubo and the Two Strings, and serving as head of story for the Academy Award-winning Pinocchio.
Her first graphic novel, Anya's Ghost, was published in 2011 by First Second Books and won an Eisner Award. Her first picture book, Leave Me Alone, was published in 2016 by Roaring Brook Press and won a Caldecott Honor.
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To welcome our visiting author, Vera Brosgol, PK, K, and Grade 1 created two jars filled with their hopes, dreams, and favorite things. This stop-motion video displays our students’ individual artwork.
