Pine Bush Elementary students got to meet the author of such amazing and fun books as “What a Map Can Do,” “Who’s That Dinosaur,” “Book of Dinosaurs,” “50 Cities” and “50 States.” Gabrielle Balkan brought her books, artifacts, maps and just mesmerized her PBE audience!

 

 

 

Ms. Balkan, who has published 17 books, explained to her audience how books are made and why she chose to write certain books. She loves maps and showed so many maps to the kids. She also showed the different ways to draw a map, including one made with coins, one that was embroidered, and another drawn with different animals of a region.

 

 

Her favorite book that she’s written to date? What a Map Can Do! It’s a humorous introduction to maps for budding navigators. Ms. Balkan explained that maps can tell readers many things. She explained that maps can tell different things, like the map of the United States that depicted where the population of goats is throughout the country.

 

 

She brought many of the dinosaur artifacts she has that the kids could touch and pass around, tying in with her dinosaur books.

 

 

The kids were thrilled to explore maps, dinosaurs and get to hear all about publishing books!