Author, Peter Lerangis Put on a One Man Show

On March 9th, not only did we kick off Teen TECH Week at PFTSTA, but we also hosted our first live out of town author visit of the year. Though there have been several skype author visits this year, and I invited two local authors who are friends of mine to visit, Peter Lerangis was the first official author who is touring the country to tout his newest book. 

I was not too familiar with his work before I found out that he was available to visit our school, so I was surprised when I heard that he had written over 150 books. Some of his work was done under a pseudonym, and of course, I wouldn't know about those books. It was the fourth book in the Seven Wonders series that brought him to town.

Peter's presentation kept the kids on the edge of their seats as they laughed with him and answered his questions. In another life, he was a professional actor, so he used lots of different voices as he told stories about himself to entertain the students. My favorite stories were the ones that he told about some of his classmates in college who included Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, and the one about his trip to Russia for the Russian Book Festival with Marc Brown and R. L Stine where he traveled on Air Force One.

You can visit with someone virtually, but it is the face to face contact that can really draw the students in. Days after he left I saw students around campus reading his books. Look for more pictures from the day on the library website.