Michigan Memories
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!