Yolanda Ridge

Readings

The workshop/reading starts with a fun game where students are presented with a list of ten "ridiculous" rules (for example, chewing gum is illegal in Singapore.) As a group, the students have to decide whether each rule is real or something I made up. This leads to a discussion about rules in general. Why do we need them? Why do some of them seem unfair? I ask the students to come up with a short list of rules they think are unfair. At this point I give some context for the book (setting and main characters) and read a chapter where the main character is trying to rally the other children in her townhouse complex to fight a bylaw against tree climbing. After the reading I return to the list of rules that the students came up with and ask if there are any that are truly worth fighting and ask for their ideas on how to fight them. The hour ends with book signing and optional purchase.

Book Sales:

Yes

Workshops

Same as above.

Book Sales:

Yes

Biography

Yolanda Ridge is the author of Trouble in the Trees, a middle grade novel about a girl who fights a bylaw against tree climbing in her Vancouver townhouse complex. The follow up book, Road Block, will be published by Orca Books in Spring 2012.

Before writing for kids, Yolanda wrote everything from poetry filled with teenaged angst, to scientific articles full of words that no one can pronounce. Now that she has found her passion, Yolanda plans to continue creating stories and poems for young people (and publish more of the ones she’s already written!)

Yolanda lives in British Columbia with her husband and two sons; five-year-old twins that fill her days with inspiration and creativity.

To find out more please visit Yolanda’s website; www.yolandaridge.com