Betty Birney’s Blog

Midway Intermedita library assistant Jan Duello, me, librarian Judy Payne.

Watching Hurricane Ike do his terrible thing, it’s hard to believe that a week ago today I was enjoying sunny Houston with relatives there.

I started off in Waco at the Midway Intermediate School, spending the day with very enthusiastic fifth and sixth graders. It was my first visit to Waco and Judy Payne, the librarian, was a terrific hostess, making sure I was well-fed, well cared for and even gave me a great tour of Waco and the beautiful Baylor University Campus.  Sometimes when I travel, I only see the school and the hotel and don’t get to see the city, but I always like to get a sense of where I am and see the wonders of the area.

On Saturday, I flew to Houston, rented a car and drove out to The Woodlands, a beautiful lushly wooded planned community. I was invited to speak at a school on Monday and took the opportunity to visit my cousin and her family - the first time I’ve gotten to The Woodlands even though they’ve lived there 15 years! I had a relaxing weekend, talking, eating, talking, working, talking.  Again, a taste of great Texas hospitality.

Cousins Linda, Sam (the last of three sons still at home), John

With Susan Gerding at John Cooper

Monday, I was at the John Cooper School where I spoke to kindergarteners and up, had a great lunch in their really great cafeteria (I chose the taco bar) and signed a lot of books. Cousin Linda stopped by to check out my presentation (luckily it went well) and Librarian and hostess Susan Gerding made everything move smoothly. There was a very special lunch with students, who got to choose cupcakes by picking their favorite wonder (see below). I got the Humphrey cupcake.

Wonder-full cupcakes!

I was amazed at the wonderful art projects the students had created (school had only been in session a little over a week): Uncle Sam applehead dolls with writing about the Wonders of America … unbelievably detailed clothespin dolls like Aunt Pretty made … and Humphrey drawings and book covers. I took a lot of pictures … and they turned out lousy! I’m so sorry I can’t share them with you but all you’d see was the flash. I may work on them some more.

Now, I’m just watching the news and hoping all my Texas friends and relatives, including my husband’s cousins in Houston who I hope to see in January, and my cousin’s daughter and husband, newly moved to Corpus Christi. Odd that just after a spectacular week falling in love with Cedar Rapids, IA in April they had such devastating floods. Maybe I should stay home!

 Sorry -  I keep forgetting to allow comments and to classify my blogs - I just go too fast. I want comments so if you have any from the previous post, you can put them here. I’ll try to do better … and my apologies to those whose comments I missed in the past - that won’t happen again and I’m all caught up!

 Also, if you don’t know it, Humphrey “blogs” in his notebook on the Humphreyville page of my website. Check it out some time. He’s a pretty clever hamster and he LOVES-LOVES-LOVES riddles.

Now, read the post after this one, which is actually the post before it …. oh, I think I’ll go pack my which I have to pau $15 to check because I carry on my laptop and small projector.

See Y’all in Texas!

 And speaking of Texas, I’m still quite fond of my picture book,Tyrannosaurus Tex, which was very popular, had a long run, but went out of print last year.

School is over for the summer … at least for me! My last school visit was a week ago at the Third Street School in Los Angeles. On my way home, I recalled the little saying we chanted on the last day of school:

School’s out, school’s out,

Teacher let the mules out!

No more classes, no more books,

No more teacher’s dirty looks!!!

The end of school always included a district wide school parade, followed by a day at the wonderful old Forest Park Highlands amusement park. The memories are flooding in so I’ll have to do a separate post on the Highlands. The district took it over for the day. You could buy food there or bring picnics. And if your family wasn’t going, bus transportation was supplied. It was a rip-roaring close to the school year. The Highlands are long gone and so is Reavis School.

I loved school but I loved summer, too. More time for reading, bike-riding, swimming, jumping rope, playing hopscotch, playing board and card games and building imaginary worlds.  (I had a lot of those.) But I was always glad to go back to school in the fall because I missed my friends and I did like school.

 Even though I have plenty of writing to do this summer, I hope to get more reading done and enjoy working in my new kitchen.

Carole Koneff, the librarian at Third Street Elementary, wrote an epic poem that’s a lot better than the one about the mules. What a lovely introduction!

The Seven Wonders of the World inspired a lovely book

And lots of us decided to take a closer look

About a boy named Eben who went upon a quest

To find some local wonders and try to pass a test.

His dad threw down the gauntlet and in the space of just a week,

He had to decide the things that he would seek.

He had to scour the neighborhood and overcome some fears,

And on the way must endure the teasing of his peers.

And as he delved a little further and stuck to the task,

The wonders started happening, and then came thick and fast.

A doll that saved a person, a bookcase in the rain

A saw that scared the locusts, a table helping pain

A ship inside a bottle, a blind woman’s magic loom

A perfect miniature of the town that washed away the gloom

This book of seven wonders made us smile and want to cheer

And we are very happy that Betty Birney’s here

To talk to us of Eben and delightful Humphrey, too

And now I am just thrilled to introduce her to you!

With Jill Dorfman at Richboro Elementary

 Bucks County is obviously a great place for writers, since Pearl Buck (Nobel Prize winner), James Michener (Pulitzer Prize winner)  and Oscar Hammerstein II (Oscar winner - a lyricist but no less a writer - and a genius) all resided here (not all at the same time). Margaret Mead, Stephen Sondheim, Moss Hart, S.J. Perelman, the Berenstains of Bear fame, Bob Dylan and Dorothy Parker also lived there at one time or another - no slouches at writing, any of them!

It’s a beautiful part of the country. I especially love the old stone houses. But I didn’t have a lot of time for sightseeing because my assignment was to visit schools! After I left Mill Creek and Warrinton (previous post) I moved to Newtown, which is a very old town, and the Brick Hotel.  My first day was spent at Goodnoe Elementary with librarian Laura Follmer and assistant Kathy Labold. A more enthusiastic group of Humphrey fans I have never encountered. (Okay, the sentence is backwards. Poetic license.)

That evening, I had dinner with Jill Dorfman and her family. Jill arranged the whole visit. She and her husband, Dennis, son Jeremy and daughter Rachel took me to an Italian restaurant where I indulged in my passion for mussels. Jeremy is a recent NYU film school grad and Rachel is in high school. I thank them for a great welcome.

I spent the next day at Richboro Elementary, Jill’s school, where I was the recipient of even greater hospitality -a major morning feast including a cake with my name on it - followed by presentations to Humphrey and Sassafras fans.

That night, I was taken to dinner by David and his parents, Eric and Peggy, at the Temperance House, one of those very old taverns with a fireplace so big,  a family of 4-6  could stand in it! David was the very astute Mill Creek student who, when he realized I was coming to Bucks County, alerted his school. Then I was contacted by first grade teacher, Cynthia Ventresca, who arranged for my visit there. Eric, the dad, grew up in my hometown of St. Louis so we did a little strolling down memory lane. He went to Kirkwood High. My sister, Janet, and her husband live in Kirkwood and  Steve is a Kirkwood grad as well.

 Sharon Blumenthal, me, Arlene Williams

Up and early the next morning I headed to Holland Elementary where Arlene Williams and assistant Sharon Blumenthal gave me another warm welcome.  It was a BUSY-BUSY-BUSY day, but Arlene rewarded me with authentic PA pretzels - I’ve never had pretzels that good, even though my husband is from PA - and then dinner with a group of  teachers, planned by Arlene so I could have an authentic Philly Cheese Steak sandwich. (Although this is quite controversial - some feel “authentic” means Cheese Whiz - thankfully, this nice Italian restaurant used Provolone.) It was great - and different than I expected.

Tired but happy, I left the restaurant and receive a beautiful reward for two weeks away from home: a double rainbow! I followed it all the way back to my hotel and if I just could have gotten into those woods, I know I would have found my pot of gold!  But wait - are we sure that wonderful lyricist’s name wasn’t Oscar Hamsterstein?

Two weeks. Eight flights.  Three states. Four hotels. 1500 books signed. 15 schools.

And now I’m home. It was a great trip with few hitches (airline related-only). I’m home for a week and a half, then off for the final trip of the year - to fulfill the Humphrey Drawing Contest. (I have to visit the school of the winner - more about that soon.)

The photo above is from the Cedar Rapids leg of the trip - it was taken by librarian Sally Reck at Indian Creek Elementary in Marion, IA.  I give it three BOINGS!!!

   Sally and Wynelle Lindsley of Bowman Woods arranged this wonderful visit for me. Here I am with Jan Dickinson and Wynelle at their library.
 The kids there performed a GREAT-GREAT-GREAT poem for me and the answer to their question is “Yes, there will be another Humphrey book.”

To that end, ADVENTURE ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY is being typeset for next spring and I’m starting the first “shorter” Humphrey book - a short chapter book that will be illustrated. I may have some time off from travel but never time off from Humphrey!

 I’ll catch up with the Bucks County part of the trip in a few days. Let’s just say it ended with a double rainbow!

 Doylestown, PA May 18, 2008

Okay, I kind of made a mistake and inadvertently booked back-to-back trips this spring. So on Mother’s Day, I flew to Indianapolis and then drove to Carmel, IN - a charming area just outside Indianapolis. I stayed at a great B&B (Old Towne Bed and Breakfast) where I was graciously hosted by Lorraine and Doug who went the extra mile to make sure I had what I needed. I spoke at Smoky Row Elementary and Forest Dale Elementary. My thanks to hosting media specialists Mrs. Marley (Smoky Row) and Mrs. Duffy (Forest Dale). I had a GREAT-GREAT-GREAT time and offer my heartfelt thanks to the Ahearns for a lovely dinner and great conversation.

 Then up at the crack of dawn (always at the crack of dawn) for the trip to Cedar Rapids. I changed planes in St. Louis, my home town. It was to supposed be a close connection but a lightning storm shut down the airport so we were delayed. I’m just sorry I didn’t get to stay over and see my relatives.

Wynelle Lindsley of Bowman Woods Elementary in Cedar Rapids picked me up and whisked to her school to sign lots and lots and lots of books. Then it was off to dinner at Sally Reck’s house (Indian Creek Elementary) for another great homecooked meal where I got to meet some of the other media specialists and their entertaining husbands.

Then it was a stimulating round of school visits to Novak, Linn Grove, Indian Creek, Oak Ridge, Westfield, Wilkins and Bowman Woods where I met GREAT-GREAT-GREAT students who were very enthusiastic about Humphrey!!

Thanks so much to the extremely gracious media specialists: Cynde, Melissa, Sally, Sue, Deb, Tiffany and Wynelle for great lunches and dinners (we won’t talk about the many hours of signing - I had a very nice room to do it in).

Cedar Rapids/Marion (Marion is where these schools were located except Bowman Woods) is a truly beautiful area, reminding me of my midwestern childhood. And the people, as I always find in the midwest, are so friendly. Kind of like Humphrey!

Now I’m in Bucks County, PA for the weekend. I’ll fill you in on that schedule later … but I had a lovely morning exploring Doylestown - what a charming town - quintessentially American, complete with streets lined with American flags. I drove on to New Hope which is great but it poured rain and I hurried back to the room for emailing, blogging and basically catching up!

And I’ll catch up with the rest of my trip later!

I will be signing Humphrey books at the L.A. Times Festival of Books on Saturday, April 26th at 10:00 a.m. (sorry, that’s early) at the Mrs. Nelson’s Toy and Book Shop booth in the children’s area. Hope to see you there - it’s a great event! And you can wish me a happy birthday on my actual birthday!

Not much time to blog but I did receive the Oklahoma State Award, the Sequoyah, yesterday before an audience of 500 kids. I also signed books for over three hours with no apparent damage to my hand! I received more good news which I will share very soon.

  I’m off to give a speech at the Oklahoma Library Association luncheon and then driving to Broken Arrow, OK for visits to Indian Springs and Park Lane Elementary Schools. OK!

I knew all along it was Barbara O’Connor, not Jane, with whom I’ll be speaking on the panel at TLA.  Jane O’Connor writes the popular FANCY NANCY books.

 Barbara O’Connor is the award-winning author of  the acclaimed books: HOW TO STEAL A DOG, MOONPIE AND IVY and FAME AND GLORY IN FREEDOM, GEORGIA. I can’t wait to meet her.

As soon as I published the blog I realized I’d made a mistake.

For more than a year, I have been emailing back and forth with Elaine Carlson (at the end of the table) in Farmington Hills, Michigan for a visit there — and now, it’s over! I had a GREAT-GREAT-GREAT time.

First of all, I want to congratulate all the students at Highmeadow, Forest, Wooddale, Kenbrook, Hillside, Wm. Grace, Flanders, Lanigan, Gill, Beechview, Longacre, Eagle and Woodcreek who EARNED the right to see my presentations by reading five books in their annual Book Parade event. Almost every student had read World and Friendship (in previous years, too) and Sassafras.

A special congratulations to the kids who went the extra mile and earned a free book - TROUBLE ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY, signed by me. It was a race to get all those hundreds of books signed but I made it!

And a very special thanks to the media specialists who drove me, made sure I was fed and at the right place at the right time. We had a great dinner together - it’s unfortunate that the picture above is the only one I have and my apologies to those who got cut off, but we had a great time. (I’m in the blue on the left.)

An extra special thanks to Sue Kalisky (in blue on the right)  who picked me up at the airport and arranged my transportation back at 6 am on Friday. (We won’t talk about the fact that American cancelled my flights home - I got home right on time, thanks to United.)

On Thursday night, we had a successful event at the staggeringly sensational Farmington Hills Library -a surprise on a rainy night. Thanks to Laurie Scott for all her help and to the Friends of the Library for helping to sponsor my visit. I’d sure love to have a state-of-the-art library like that in my neighborhood.

Thanks also to Addie, who is retired but works at the public library and also shuttled me a couple of times and made sure I got dinner.

I’m madly trying to catch up before leaving for the Texas Library Association conference in Dallas. I’ll be on a panel with Gennifer Choldenko (whom I met when we both received Pennsylvania Keystone to Reading Awards, along with Kelly DiPucchio) and Jane O’Connor. It’s bright and early Thursday morning. I’ll get to schmooze with media specialists, my editor Susan Kochan and other folks from Penguin. I come home on Friday and leave Sunday for a week in Tulsa, where I’ll receive the Sequoyah Award for THE WORLD ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY at the Oklahoma Library Association meeting. Then I’ll speak to some schools in Broken Arrow.

FUN-FUN-FUN!

When I wrote my last post, I said I’d continue in a day or two. That was over a week ago, which just goes to show you how crazed I continue to be! But I do want to acknowledge the REST of my wonderful trip to Florida. I started the week at Trinity Elementary in New Port Richey where media specialist Rhoda Cribbs and LOTS-LOTS-LOTS of enthusiastic students gave me a grand welcome. The day flew by.

On Tuesday, media specialist Darlene Colen and her remarkable readers at Schrader Elementary School kept me on my toes … and I had a great lunch with a group of young readers and writers - my favorite kind of people. Darlene and I are both from St. Louis, so we compared notes in between presentations.

   After more than a year of planning, on Wednesday, I went to Wesley Chapel Elementary School. Marianne Mackey-Smith (pictured here with me) the media specialist, really pulled out all the stops. She previously ”rescued” me on a bad day at a conference, so I consider her a kind of guardian angel. She also set up the other school visits for this leg of my trip. The students had done a ton of preparation. There were wonderful applehead dolls and clothespin dolls and good writing, all in honor of Sassafras Springs. I even got to be on the morning TV show, along with a lot of important people … and a guy dressed up as a slice of pizza! Thanks to Marianne for a great trip and great day.

My very own Miss Zeldy!

I rounded out the trip at Marlowe Elementary School, New Port Richey, where media specialist Cherie Cockerham and her students got straight A’s for being Attentive, Animated and Affable (look that one up if you don’t know it).

I didn’t have much time to rest after returning on the 18th, because on the 22nd, I was hosted at Whittier Christian School by Jeri Samuelson and Pam Florin. (Another school visit long in the making!) It was my turn to be surprised because they had copies of SURPRISES ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY to sign, as well as the new paperback of TROUBLE ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY - and they’re not even officially out then. In fact, it was the first time I’d seen Trouble. I had a great morning!   

I was about to crop this but thought those of you stuck in cold weather might enjoy seeing that palm tree out the window!

This past Wednesday, the 30th, I did a teleconferenced question and answer session with students from various schools in Orange County (CA) - which will be available to all students in that big school district. Good questions, kids!

On Saturday, the 2nd, it was a rare opportunity to speak to grown-ups as I traveled to Cal Poly Pomona to address the Chi State, Area XIII Conference of Delta Kappa Gamma Society, an organization that promotes “professional and personal growth of women educators and excellence in education.” I especially enjoyed meeting lots of good women doing good work … and we did some group singing which really revved things up! The group was so receptive, it was a speaker’s dream come true. Thanks to Gail Herron and Jean Bristol.

More events coming up, including that two week trip to the UK in March and I’m just trying to finish Humphrey book 5! And trying not to talk so much.