Houston's Bruce Foster joined Middle School classes to share his expertise as a "paper engineer." Foster known for authoring pop-up books such as Harry Potter, the Pop-Up Book, Wow! The Sports Illustrated Kid's Pop-Up Book of Sports, Architectural Wonders, In the Beginning, Angels, and coming in 2011, Puff, the Magic Dragon spent two hours sharing the dynamics of his craft and helping students build their own Snoopy doghouse structures. The next day he returned after putting the finishing touches on the structures.

Foster's work has been chosen three times by The NBC Today Show as a Top Ten Gift Book, and USA Today recently declared his work in Harry Potter, "Awesome". He has produced pop-up books for publishing houses including Simon and Schuster, Random House, Disney Hyperion, Candlewick Press, Little, Brown and Company and Time, Inc. Foster is the only "paper engineer" in Texas and one of thirteen in the United States.

Literacy specialist for The Branch School, Michelle Thomas arranged the visit. When asked why she chose this particular guest speaker, she said, "This year's Teen Read Week Theme is "Picture It." Given the theme, I thought it would be fun and different to invite someone of this creative caliber to meet with the Middle School students. When I learned that Bruce Foster lived in Houston, I contacted him right away. There is something so magical and mysterious to me about pop-up books."

The day of the visit you could see student interest grow with each moment while viewing the magic of the pop-up art engineering and the creative process of Foster's stunning work.