Steven Layne urges listeners to wonder “what if?”

A daily review of convention news from the staff of Reading Today

 At the Awards Banquet during the IRA Annual Convention on Wednesday, popular author Steven Layne urged listeners to wonder “what if?” He described the arduous process he went through to get his publisher to agree to let his friend Ard Hoyt do the illustrations for his new book Love the Baby, and he read the finished work.

There were “magic” wands at each table, and he urged listeners to use their magic with their students or families to help others imagine the “what ifs?” in their lives. “We have the potential to be the fairy godmother or godfather for someone,” he said. “Think about someone you know who needs a chance.”

Layne recalled how 13 years ago he attended his first IRA Annual Convention in Toronto as a fifth-grade teacher from Illinois. While there, he dropped off at a publisher’s booth the manuscript for what became his first book, Thomas’s Sheep and the Great Geography Test. Many successful books later, Layne says it all started for him at the IRA Annual Convention in 1994.

He challenged listeners “to leave tonight determined to explore new possibilities or to wave the wand for someone.”