GUILDERLAND — John Archambault got a rock star’s greeting at Westmere Elementary School last week. The kids had read many of his books. They cheered for him, and sang with him. They clapped along with his rhythms and occasionally jumped up and down when they could no longer contain themselves.

Archambault’s library presentations ranged from the rollicking to the serious.

Asked about his favorite book, he did not name his most popular book — Chicka Chicka Boom Boom — or his most recent book — Boom Chicka Rock. The first features letters and the last features numbers, both with rocking rhythms, scintillating stories, and riveting rhymes.

No, the book he chose was a serious one, Knots on a Counting Rope, where the rhymes and rhythms offer reassurance and a way of remembering as Grandfather and Boy-Strength-of-Blue-Horses reminisce about the blind boy’s birth, his first horse, and horse race.

Archambault held the book in his hand, but recited rather than read it to the spellbound Westmere second-graders.
"I imagined what it was like not to see," he told them as he recited the passage about the color blue where Grandfather describes it as the feeling of a spring day.

As the boy hears the stories about himself, prompting his grandfather in their telling, knots are tied in a rope, so that he may remember and one day tell them himself.

Archambault spoke the boy’s part in a high, reedy voice; the grandfather’s part in a low, somber tone.
"I was afraid, Grandfather, until you called to me. Tell me again, what you said," says the boy.
"I said, ‘Don’t be afraid, boy! Trust your darkness. Go like the wind...You have faced darkness and won. You now can see with your heart, feel part of all that surrounds you; your courage lights the way,’" says Grandfather.
He also tells his grandson, "You’ll never be alone, boy. My love like the strength of Blue Horse will always surround you."
In his own voice, Archambault told the Westmere students how he fought and fought with his editor for one little word — "more." The editor had thought "as" was proper. But Archambault won the battle and the grandfather says to the boy, "Your dreams are more beautiful than rainbows and sunsets."

As Archambault told the story, a teacher, sitting at his side, interpreted the words for the hearing-impaired students sitting at his feet.
Archambault started using the sign language, too, with gestures that looked enthusiastic but a bit awkward next to the fluid motions of the interpreter. Archambault spotted a little girl in the front row, gracefully making the signs and he shouted, "You know this! Do it with me!"

Her eyes glowed and she flashed a bright smile as she shaped the words with her hands.

"Metaphors be with you"

Westmere librarian Micki Nevett said kindergarten teacher Debra Wing had discovered Archambault at a conference she had attended. Nevett said she was grateful the school’s PTA raised the funds to bring him to Westmere, for the annual author’s visit.

Archambault, who lives in California, has worked as a journalist and teacher as well as a poet and children’s author. He has also produced a half-dozen albums that complement his books.

Archambault told the Westmere students that one of his best-known books, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, which he co-authored with Bill Martin Jr. as he did Knots on a Counting Rope, came about because of "a fifth-grader who, in order to learn to read, had to rely on the rhythm."

Martin and Archambault have produced a supplemental reading program calledSounds of Language, influenced by brain research on the power of music in learning.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom was dedicated to his son, Arie Alexander Archambault, when he was the "new baby boom boom." His son is now grown up — at 18, he’s 6 feet, 7 inches tall. Archibald is working on a new book for him called My Pet Giant.
"My son is so tall, sometimes he feels kind of goofy," said the author. "I’m going to write this book and dedicate it to him."

Archambault told the kids to use their imagination and help create a story about a pet giant.

He started with a couplet about the giant:
"One day, just for fun, he tried to touch the...," said Archambault, reaching high with his left hand.
"Ceiling!" screamed the children.
Archambault repeated the couplet, this time stressing the word "fun." The kids got it and chorused back, "Sun!"
"If you found a giant, would you keep it a secret"" asked Archambault. Almost every hand went up, indicating the secret would be kept.
"Where would you put him" asked Archambault.
"Under the bed," answered one boy.
"But his feet would stick out. Your mom would say, ‘Size 42!’" exclaimed Archambault in a falsetto voice as the kids howled.
"Paint him like a tree," offered another boy.
"Good imagination," responded the author.
He encouraged the kids by saying an idea is "like a dog with a bone, kind of let it alone."

And so the story unfolded as the kids and Archambault constructed the tale of George the Giant, painted like a tree and hidden in the woods by a boy named Julian, who sings him to sleep with a lullaby and returns home. But the giant is discovered by a nosy neighbor who calls 911, which brings on police cars, and sirens, and a helicopter, and TV cameras. Finally, Julian sees his giant on TV.
"What are they going to do to George"" asked Archambault.
"Kill him!" shout several kids.
"You guys watch too much TV," says Archambault. "Mrs. Nevett, I’ll send you a manuscript."
"Guess how many times I re-wrote it"" he asks the kids; they guess three times.
"Three dozen," says Archambault.
"You’re second-graders; metaphors be with you," he tells the Westmere students, riffing on the Star Wars phrase like a Jedi knight.
The author concludes, "There’s a giant in you and a giant in me, taller than the tallest..."
This time the kids complete the couplet perfectly, shouting as one, "Tree!"