Monday, April 20, 2020

A Tribute to Kevin Sylvester

Blame this tweet. This is what started this whole train of thought. I summarize the interaction in the below tweet.
In case you can't read it, it says "Something must've gotten in my eye - just read how great Canadian author (and all-around nice guy) Kevin Sylvester has offered personal help to Danish-American Global Read Aloud founder (and super parent and educator) Pernille Ripp to inspire her child. When I despair about the world, I shall not.

The more I thought about Kevin Sylvester, the more examples popped in my head about how he has gone out of his way to make people feel valued, the way he has leveraged his clout as an author, illustrator, and broadcaster to support those who need lifting up. So, at the risk of embarrassing him tremendously, I wanted to write a little bit about how Kevin Sylvester has made a difference to me and those dear to me. Now, usually when I write about someone publicly online, I notify them in advance - I need to respect their privacy. It's not like Kevin and I are "besties"; so I contacted him and checked with him. His response? Go ahead (and he even turned down the offer to see the post prior to publication). Thank you Kevin; I hope this won't be too awkward, but this is the "This is Kevin Sylvester through the eyes of Diana Maliszewski" version of a retrospective.

2005

With a fan at the Forest of Reading launch
I'm not sure about the first time I precisely met Kevin Sylvester, but the first piece of photo evidence I have comes from 2005. The Ontario Library Association was experimenting with Launch Parties for the Forest of Reading program and on October 18, 2005, I was allowed to attend an event with a few of my students. Kevin was nominated for a Silver Birch Non-Fiction award for his book, Sports Hall of Weird. What impressed me about him at the time was how personable he was and the rapport he had with his fellow authors and illustrators. (Please excuse the quality of the photos - this was 15 years ago and these are scans from my scrapbook.)



The group of nominees for FoR 2006

2006

I was so impressed with Kevin Sylvester that I invited him to give a presentation at what eventually became an annual local Silver Birch celebration. Kevin captivated the students. He was entertaining. They enjoyed his talk and his books.





2007

 Kevin won't remember this, but my very first "media appearance" was as a guest of his on CBC Radio - Metro Morning. I was asked to come to talk about the elementary school library funding initiative by the provincial government. Speaking live on radio was super-scary but Kevin made it almost fun. I compared the attention that school libraries were receiving to being asked to dance by the popular kid at prom, and Kevin Sylvester made that comment sound much more witty than it was. (He made a comment about the image of Dalton McGuinty dancing in his head.) This was not the first time Kevin Sylvester helped me overcome a challenge.

 2009

I have no clue how often Kevin Sylvester has been nominated for a Forest of Reading award. I suspect that it's a lot. Kevin is such a big booster of the Ontario Library Association and the Forest of Reading program. This is just a recent tweet he shared extolling its virtues.



He has a dynamic stage presence when he is at what used to be called the Festival of Trees and is now known as the Forest of Reading Festival. This is a photo I took of him addressing the crowd of enthusiastic readers in 2009.


2011 

I continued to see Kevin at various Forest of Reading events and he continued to delight his fans with his writing and his appearances. (I love the Neil Flambe series, although I like to pretend that the plot that Neil comes from a long line of chefs that fail due to a curse isn't really part of the Flambe canon.)

Later that year, I had my first opportunity to interact with Kevin on a level deeper than just as a teacher-librarian and author. I was asked to be on a panel for the Book and Periodical Council, with Patsy Aldana and Annie Kidder. Patsy Aldana is the founder of Groundwood Books, the past president of the National Reading Campaign, and the International Board of Books for Young People (IBBY). Annie Kidder is an actress and the founder and executive director of People For Education. I am ... a teacher-librarian - and I was terrified! I felt like I was totally out of my league. How could I even attempt to sound as poised and knowledgeable as Patsy and Annie? Kevin Sylvester was the moderator of the panel and he was so incredibly reassuring. He did a wonderful job facilitating the conversation and made me feel like I belonged and wasn't an imposter.


2012

I knew that Kevin was nice to "library people" and "education people". An incident that occurred during the 2012 Ontario Library Association cemented my opinion that Kevin was also nice to "young people" and that it wasn't just a persona he adopted when on stage. I brought students to the conference for a special project. When Kevin encountered them in the hallway, the students and Kevin started talking. Before I realized what was happening, Kevin Sylvester was down on the floor, sitting with the kids, giving an impromptu drawing lesson.


2013

Could I like Kevin Sylvester even more than I already did? Yes. In 2013, one of my students was chosen to write and present a short speech introducing Kevin onstage at the Forest of Reading Festival. Hamrish was so excited to write and present this speech. (I can use Hamrish's name and image here because he signed a media release form that permits it.)

Kevin Sylvester made Hamrish feel like he was the most important person at the festival. He praised his speech publicly on stage and later via social media. Hamrish was walking on Cloud 9 all day. I wrote a little bit about that encounter on my blog back in 2013.


2015

This is another example of a "I-saw-Kevin-at-the-festival-and-he-put-a-smile-on-my-face" moment.

MCing the Red Maple Awards, 2015
2017

I mentioned earlier about some local Forest of Reading events that we undertake: the Silver Birch Quiz Bowl and the Red Maple Marketing Campaign. Kevin uses his social media presence to celebrate and encourage others. I tweeted out the various projects related to each of the books and tagged the authors. Every single author mentioned, including Kevin, tweeted back.

2019

Last year, I saw Kevin at two separate events: the OLA Forest of Reading Festival and at Fan Expo Canada. What floored me was how Kevin was so incredibly supportive of the education workers. He spoke openly of his support for what the unions were trying to accomplish and chided the government for their mixed-up priorities. Kevin isn't a teacher and his support meant so much to me, especially because it ended up being a very long, drawn-out battle that only just ended in March 2020. Kevin can be political but he can also be playful, and consented to a few goofy photos backstage with some of my students. (Once again, because they signed media release forms, I'm allowed to show their faces here.)





At Fan Expo Canada I admired how Kevin, who probably knows a gazillion-million people, managed to recognize people and greet them like old friends. I was dressed like Recovery Girl from the manga/anime My Hero Academia, but Kevin still acknowledged me warmly.


2020

This is the cherry on top of the Kevin Sylvester tribute sundae. He's talented, friendly, personable, entertaining, knowledgeable, versatile, articulate, funny, and supportive. He is also so empathetic that it startles and overwhelms me. There's the example of Kevin reaching out to Pernille to help her daughter, but I have a personal example too. I tweeted recently about my decision to stop making social media posts about my daily experience during the pandemic. As part of the Twitter thread, I mentioned my realization that this drive to document everything stemmed from my mother's dementia. Kevin Sylvester sent me a DM (direct message) with words of comfort and support. It wasn't that long ago that Kevin's mother passed away, yet he made a point of reaching out to me.

So, thank you Kevin Sylvester for being who you are, through and through.
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousApril 21, 2020 at 5:42 AM

    Okay, I started to respond, because I am an absolute charter member of the Kevin fan club (and for a really, really long time) , and my response was becoming so long I realized that I am actually going to write a blog post in response to yours. So, thank you, my dear, for the inspiration. I needed a fire lit under me to persuade me to write, and you seem to have done that.

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