On January 21, 2015, Adam Gidwitz visited ISB’s 3rd—6th Grade classes to share stories and talk about what it means to be a writer. Adam is author of the popular children’s book trilogy A Tale Dark and Grimm. These books, which weave Grimm’s fairy tales (with all of their original gory details) into a longer narrative, were named a New York Times “Editor’s Choice”, a Publishers Weekly “Best Children’s Book of the Year”, a School Library Journal “Best Children’s Book of the Year”, and an ALA “Notable Book”.

Adam captured the students’ imagination with his engaging retelling of the classic fairytale “Cinderella”, then amazed teachers and children alike when he discussed the writing process and answered questions. When he revealed that he edited his first volume 267 times, he drew many shocked gasps from the audience! Several students asked their teachers whether this would mean that they would have to edit their work 267 times as well, and all were impressed with the amount of time and effort that goes into his writing.

“Adam Gidwitz’s visit fit in perfectly with our unit in 3rd grade, Oral Traditions. Students have been reading and listening to fairytales and folktales from around the world. At this time in English, students are preparing to write fairytale and folktale adaptations of their own. Adam served as a hilarious and inspiring role model for the 3rd graders as a writer of adaptations himself. The children were taken with his jokes and his appealing style of storytelling.

In English, the fourth graders are in the midst of drafting realistic fiction stories. It was especially timely that he mentioned revisions, because he revised one of his books 267 times! Students walked away knowing that our mentor writers revise a lot their stories into the best versions possible, and we need to imitate this.

His final thoughts answered the question, what does it mean to be a writer? He said, all people who play with toys and tell themselves stories through their days are, in fact, writers. The only difference is that his stories are now written down. Our young writers realized they could be inspired to write about the things they already love and that the stories they tell and imagine can become their writing. Overall, Adam infused our day with a real charge of energy towards reading and writing!” —Jenni Arcieri, 3rd and 4th Grade English Teacher

His visit was entertaining and inspiring, and we are so grateful that he came to spend the day with us!

“Thanks so much for putting this together. It was such an inspiring visit for both students and adults! The visit was perfectly tied to our Oral Traditions unit. He mentioned the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales, which we have been studying in class. After he left, we started writing fairy tales of our own!

The students kept asking me if they would have to revise their materials 267 times. This is what particularly caught their attention — the amount of effort and attention required when writing. His talk really inspired a lot of students today, and I could see that they couldn’t wait to start writing their own pieces. They mixed and matched several characters from various tales today and used them in their story, just like Adam did.” —Amina Maine, 3rd Grade French Head Teacher

Adam shares his version of the Grimm fairytale “Cinderella”: