Welcome to the Guestbook!
I’m always eager to read your comments about my books and stories, so please feel free to pitch in. Here are a few things for you to know:
1) I answer the messages here personally.
2) No message shows up here until I actually answer it to prevent spam and other inappropriate postings. So there will sometimes be a delay before your message posts, especially if I am traveling.
3) Teachers, a gentle request: Please do not have multiple children send me variants of the same message. A group email is much easier to respond to and not such a drain on my time. My thanks in advance for being alert to this.
Sign the Guestbook!
Mr. Coville,
Since August 3rd, I have attempted to contact you three times through your “Contact” page of your website to no avail. I was beginning to become concerned… Then today, I clicked on your “Guest Book” page and discovered two entries dated August 8th and 11th which filled me with hope!
Even though this letter is both praise and book request, I shall try to submit it here in the hopes of a reply!
Sincerely, Marcia Wines
Dear Mr. Coville,
And when it was announced by The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) that our beloved Monarch Butterfly has now been added to the Endangered Species List, the very first thought (for real!) that entered my mind was your book The Prince of Butterflies. Despite my husband and my herculean efforts to garden for wildlife, your book needs to be in the hands of so many others, now, more than ever!
My quest for hardbound copies led me to your website, where lo and behold, not only was The Prince of Butterflies available but they are on sale, giving me the rare opportunity of buying them for everyone on our Christmas list!
Couple of questions –
Do you have 24 copies available?
Are the sale books also available to be autographed?
Finally, yet most importantly, many I take this opportunity, Mr. Coville, to share with you an article that I had written for Cross Reference, the newsletter of Fairfax County Virginia Public Libraries?
It had been written in April of 2008, as I sat there mesmerized, listening to you speak at the Great Books Consortium In Baltimore, feverishly trying to commit your powerful, poignant and profound words to paper!
And then you did something that I had only fleetingly hoped for, only wistfully dreamed of, as you imparted your wisdom to this star-struck audience of librarians.
At the end of your presentation you told us that now you were going to read to us the favorite book that you written.
And page by page and word by word you read The Prince of Butterflies …
Holding my personal copy, I gratefully smiled as I rose to give you a standing ovation!
I entitled my article -
Affirmation from Bruce Coville
Contemplating the summer reading program yet to come…on one of those absolutely harried days of non-stop reader’s advisory when you feel that your brain has been so addled that you wonder if you can even remember your name, it would be wise to contemplate the words of noted children’s author, Bruce Coville, whom I had the distinct pleasure of hearing speak at the Great Books Consortium in Baltimore this past April 1st.
“Librarians are Keepers of the Book, storytellers, story givers, People of the Book, whose sacred trust is leading children to books. American childhood has changed from viewing children as helping the family survive, to viewing them as objects of love, to now viewing them as consumers and that is very hard on their hearts.
However, the right story to the right child is like an arrow to the heart, filling a child’s reality with possibility and hope. And in this day of scandal-filled fallen heroes, books offer children the last refuge of good character helping them answer “Who do I want to be like?”
Within stories are the tools to save our world, drawing people together by honing their skills of empathy. Our challenge then is to give children these stories and then to live by the stories we give them, healing ourselves to heal the world.”
Empowering yet humbling words from an author that regales us with the likes of unicorns and teachers that are aliens! But, oh, do read Bruce Coville’s The Prince of Butterflies for a different perspective of this endearing author.
Marcia Wines
Reston Regional Library April 21, 2008
Since August 3rd, I have attempted to contact you three times through your “Contact” page of your website to no avail. I was beginning to become concerned… Then today, I clicked on your “Guest Book” page and discovered two entries dated August 8th and 11th which filled me with hope!
Even though this letter is both praise and book request, I shall try to submit it here in the hopes of a reply!
Sincerely, Marcia Wines
Dear Mr. Coville,
And when it was announced by The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) that our beloved Monarch Butterfly has now been added to the Endangered Species List, the very first thought (for real!) that entered my mind was your book The Prince of Butterflies. Despite my husband and my herculean efforts to garden for wildlife, your book needs to be in the hands of so many others, now, more than ever!
My quest for hardbound copies led me to your website, where lo and behold, not only was The Prince of Butterflies available but they are on sale, giving me the rare opportunity of buying them for everyone on our Christmas list!
Couple of questions –
Do you have 24 copies available?
Are the sale books also available to be autographed?
Finally, yet most importantly, many I take this opportunity, Mr. Coville, to share with you an article that I had written for Cross Reference, the newsletter of Fairfax County Virginia Public Libraries?
It had been written in April of 2008, as I sat there mesmerized, listening to you speak at the Great Books Consortium In Baltimore, feverishly trying to commit your powerful, poignant and profound words to paper!
And then you did something that I had only fleetingly hoped for, only wistfully dreamed of, as you imparted your wisdom to this star-struck audience of librarians.
At the end of your presentation you told us that now you were going to read to us the favorite book that you written.
And page by page and word by word you read The Prince of Butterflies …
Holding my personal copy, I gratefully smiled as I rose to give you a standing ovation!
I entitled my article -
Affirmation from Bruce Coville
Contemplating the summer reading program yet to come…on one of those absolutely harried days of non-stop reader’s advisory when you feel that your brain has been so addled that you wonder if you can even remember your name, it would be wise to contemplate the words of noted children’s author, Bruce Coville, whom I had the distinct pleasure of hearing speak at the Great Books Consortium in Baltimore this past April 1st.
“Librarians are Keepers of the Book, storytellers, story givers, People of the Book, whose sacred trust is leading children to books. American childhood has changed from viewing children as helping the family survive, to viewing them as objects of love, to now viewing them as consumers and that is very hard on their hearts.
However, the right story to the right child is like an arrow to the heart, filling a child’s reality with possibility and hope. And in this day of scandal-filled fallen heroes, books offer children the last refuge of good character helping them answer “Who do I want to be like?”
Within stories are the tools to save our world, drawing people together by honing their skills of empathy. Our challenge then is to give children these stories and then to live by the stories we give them, healing ourselves to heal the world.”
Empowering yet humbling words from an author that regales us with the likes of unicorns and teachers that are aliens! But, oh, do read Bruce Coville’s The Prince of Butterflies for a different perspective of this endearing author.
Marcia Wines
Reston Regional Library April 21, 2008
Reply by Bruce Coville
Dear Marcia -
First, my apologies for the shameful amount of time it has taken me to respond to this lovely message. (The Guestbook is always getting away from me!)
I'm baffled as to why your attempts to reach me through the "Contact Page" failed to reach me, as that is usually fairly reliable.
On the other hand, I am honored and flattered that the message I delivered at that conference back in 2008 still resonates with you so.
Now on to the bad news: THE PRINCE OF BUTTERFLIES is long out of print, and I only have about ten copies left. Though the book never did as well as we had hoped (I think the art, much of which is splendid, was not quite right for it) it remains a personal favorite for me. I often use the story when I do storytelling concerts.
Sorry, I wish I had better news to offer you on that front.
All good wishes, and extra wishes for the butterflies,
Bruce Coville
First, my apologies for the shameful amount of time it has taken me to respond to this lovely message. (The Guestbook is always getting away from me!)
I'm baffled as to why your attempts to reach me through the "Contact Page" failed to reach me, as that is usually fairly reliable.
On the other hand, I am honored and flattered that the message I delivered at that conference back in 2008 still resonates with you so.
Now on to the bad news: THE PRINCE OF BUTTERFLIES is long out of print, and I only have about ten copies left. Though the book never did as well as we had hoped (I think the art, much of which is splendid, was not quite right for it) it remains a personal favorite for me. I often use the story when I do storytelling concerts.
Sorry, I wish I had better news to offer you on that front.
All good wishes, and extra wishes for the butterflies,
Bruce Coville