Saturday, March 09, 2013

Buck Wilder's HIKING & CAMPING GUIDE

Author:  Tim Smith
Genre:  Children's Non-Fiction, Standalone
Published:  1997
Personal Rating:  3/5 (just okay)
Format:  Book
Yearly Count:  16


This is a basic hiking and camping guide filled with cartoon characters and silly comments.  There's also the bonus of trying to find the hidden fuzzy worm on every two pages.

The author came to our school (quite a while back now), and I thought it would be fun to purchase a book and get an autograph when he came.  I was excited, just like the kids (and probably more), so I decided to see if I could visit with him prior to his presentation.  He was not busy when I found him, so I began a friendly (giddyish) conversation with him.  It immediately turned very awkward.  He clearly did not want to engage with me.  The brief eye contact (barely a glance) told me I was being a huge nuisance.  I tried another sentence or two, then gave up.  That personal interaction affected my feelings towards this book and will not get any more.  Not fair, I know, but it's hard to separate the two.  More importantly, he was so impatient and rude with the kids, too.  The whole experience was very disappointing to say the least.

8 comments:

  1. Wow!! He came to our school several times about 7/8 years ago and was fantastic!! Maybe he's burned out on peddling his books that are 10+ years old???

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Staci ~ That'd be my guess. However, that's no excuse for treating me with disrespect. I can empathize with his annoyance with the children, but come on.

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    2. Nope, there's no excuse for his behavior at all. Has your school ever had Jonathan Rand?? We really liked him and his wife big time!!!

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    3. Staci ~ I've never even heard of him. Eek!

      Delete
  2. Anonymous10:48 PM

    Wow. How can you be rude to kids? And to people who may be able to put your book into readers hands?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Stacybuckeye ~ Maybe he was having a bad day or he's simply too old to have any patience for them. To be rude to me was another story. I'm still annoyed when I think of it. Grrr.

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  3. He writes the American and Michigan Chillers series.

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    Replies
    1. Staci ~ Ohhhh! I've been in K-4 buildings for the last 4 years. I don't know how many "chillers" they have on their shelves. I think they got shipped to the 5-6 buildings when we consolidated schools.

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