Our visit with Phillip Hoose!

It was an absolute joy to welcome renowned author Phillip Hoose to Vista last Thursday morning!

He spoke with students about his National Book Award winning, Newbery Honor title, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, discussing not only this unsung young heroine of the civil rights movement, but also his research techniques, how a middle school teacher inspired him to become an author, and wise words of advice on how to use negative feedback to grow. What does he do when gets a bad review? He lets himself feel angry - but not act on his feelings - for a day, then he wakes up the following morning and asks himself, “Is there anything in this review that I can use to improve?”

He graciously remained after his talk to sign books and chat with students. Many students asked thoughtful and insightful questions that showed they were thinking deeply about the challenging topics raised in his book and imagining how it might have felt to have been in the shoes of some of these individuals.

Phillip Hoose is a man of many talents who, in addition to history, also writes books for adults and young people about natural history and sports. He is currently hard at work researching the red knot, a shorebird whose mind-boggling migratory habitats unfortunately place it at risk. If you have not yet had the pleasure of getting to know his thought-provoking books, be sure to check out some of his titles!