Betty Birney's Blog

You can always tell when I’ve been busy writing because I don’t blog much. For some reason, when I’m working on a book, I have to shut other things out.

But continuing with my recent book tour …. After leaving San Francisco, I headed to Minneapolis where I visited Creek Valley Elementary in Edina and Kenny Community School in Minneapolis.  Then my terrific media escort, Tim,  took me to Wild Rumpus Bookstore. There are lots of wonderful books there … and some very interesting tenants.  Cats and chickens roam the bookstore … and living below the horror section are the rats, of course.

A ferret is not a potential friend for Humphrey  

 I have a crush on Spike and his big smile.

 Me with Nicky and Drew of Wild Rumpus, and Tim

Minneapolis was beautiful but I didn’t have much time there as I was off to Chicago that same night. The Arista Hotel in Naperville is very cool and contemporary. The TV in the bathroom mirror was the best perk of the trip. 

      Munhall with Kristin Kaye

I started the next day at Munhall Elementary School (Go, Mustangs!). They were impressed that I wore the school colors. In the afternoon, I met with enthusiastic friends at Elm  School in Burr Ridge. And the icing on the cake was my signing on Friday night at Anderson’s Bookshop in Downers Grove. Kathleen March could not have been more welcoming and I had the best bunch of Humphrey fans show up! They entertained me as much as I did them. The surprise mystery guests turned out to be my editor, Susan Kochan’s, niece and sister! A little later, illustrator Larry Day happened to be at the shop … and he’s also doing a book for Susan right now.  Thanks to my media escort, Mary Jo, for her great driving and patience.

Me with Susan’s niece Katherine and her sister, Joan. 

   With illustrator Larry Day 

  All thanks to Kathleen March of Anderson’s in Downers Grove for an unsqueakably wonderful evening.

And so it was back to L.A. on Saturday … was it real or just a dream? You can’t quite tell when you’re on a book tour!

I’m still recovering from a whirlwind book tour. I’ve always heard writers talk about how you don’t even know what city you’re in. I wouldn’t go that far … but last Wednesday, I did have to ask someone on the plane what day of the week it was!

I got off to an easy start here at home in L.A.. I visited the wonderful Wonderland School, not that far from my house. There was a long break, so my media escort, Diana, took me to a large B&N where I signed books, then on to the Barnhart School in Arcadia.

With librarian Myrtle Keefe at Wonderland School

With Barnhart librarian Alicia Yao in front of the stunning stained glass windows at Santa Anita Church next door.

The enthusiastic southern California students gave me energy to get to my next stop which was: San Francisco! It’s only an hour flight to S.F. from Burbank, but the plane was 1 1/2 hours late arriving. Groan. Great hotel – The Prescott – and my media escort, Brian, arrived the next morning to whisk me off to North Hillsborough Elementary and South Hillsborough Elementary. Both are in – you guessed it – Hillsborough. In the afternoon, I had tea with three world class librarians. I don’t know about them, but I learned a lot!

In Humphrey’s words, Tuesday was a BUSY-BUSY-BUSY day complicated by world-class traffic jams. Still, Brian managed to get me to Walter Hayes in Palo Alto, Gardner Bullis in Los Altos, and St. Joseph’s in Atherton. I wish I could have had more time at each school but it was run in, speak, sign like crazy, race out the door. It wouldn’t have worked at all if the schools hadn’t been well-organized and without the help of wonderful Lisa from Kepler’s Books.  Another dash to the airport and I was off to Minneapolis.

But I did leave at least part of my heart in San Francisco – a beautiful city with beautiful children!

Gardner Bullis School in Los Altos with Jane Sanders

              Last week, I headed down to Laguna for a speaking engagement and ended up on the beach! Thus is life in L.A.  Unfortunately I also ended up smack in the middle of the blackout with no traffic lights working and major traffic jams. But I was with my Aunt Katie and that made it so much better. The traffic just gave us more time to catch up.

I’m heading out of Southern California on a book tour tomorrow, sponsored by my publishers, Penguin. I actually start the “tour” here in L.A., visiting two schools and signing books. Then I hop a plane for San Francisco for two nights and more schools. Next stop: Minneapolis where I’ll spend less than 24 hours. I’ll end the trip in Chicago where I’ll have a public event:

Anderson’s Bookshop, Downers’ Grove, Friday, September 16 at 7 PM! I’m very excited about visiting this fabulous indy bookstore. Illinois readers have been big fans of Humphrey and The World According to Humphrey is currently on the state’s Bluestem Award list.  So y’all come!

I actually lived in Chicago for seven months too many years ago to mention. A fun, fun city. It has a beach, too.

I believe this was my first day of first grade (yes, I was and am tall). I think my mom is actually applauding the fact that my sister Janet and I are going back to school with our nifty new shoes, socks, and lunchboxes.

I mostly took the summer off from blogging – but definitely not from writing. I actually got a lot of that done. Now it’s back to school again and back to blogging for me. I will soon be visiting schools in L.A., San Francisco, Minneapolis and Chicago on a book tour sponsored by Humphrey’s publisher, Penguin. I have other dates coming up here in Los Angeles throughout the fall.

If you teachers, students and parents are having trouble transitioning back to school, check out Humphrey’s latest adventure: School Days According to Humphrey. Our hamster hero, Humphrey, is SHOCKED-SHOCKED-SHOCKED at the changes he finds in Room 26 as a new school year begins.

   Continuing our trip to the real Pooh Corner, my friend Min and I started out at the Pooh Corner Shop in Hartfield – the door is a little on the low side.  After dropping a few pounds and pence at the shop, we headed out for the Ashdown Forest. In the books, it’s referred to as The Hundred Acre Wood. But it’s actually locally known as the Five Hundred Acre Wood.

It wasn’t difficult to see that we’d come to the right spot.

It’s about a mile and a third walk through the forest to the Poohsticks Bridge. To be honest, the bridge has been redone but it’s the same spot where Pooh and his friends, played the game of Poohsticks.  Like many children’s games, it began as an accidental observation as Pooh threw a fir-cone over the bridge. (He later switched to sticks, which were easier to mark.)

That’s funny,” said Pooh. “I dropped it on the other side and it came out on this side! I wonder if it would do it again?” House at Pooh Corner

  One of the delights of the day was the fact that Min and I were the only people around – anywhere! It was just as it might have been when A.A. Milne took his son, Christopher Robin, for a walk. Min and I were anxious to play Poohsticks but the sign said you couldn’t take twigs off the trees and had to bring your own sticks. Luckily, some kind soul had  left a whole pile of sticks on the ground, all of a uniform size and shaved at the ends. (Or was that kind soul a mild-mannered bear?)

“Then he dropped two in at once, and leant over the bridge to see which of them would come out first; and one of them did ….” House at Pooh Corner

  Min ready to throw her first Poohstick.

I always thought it was such a silly little game. Each player throws a stick over the bridge on one side. Then players rush to the other side and watch as the sticks emerge from under the bridge and try to determine which stick wins. Well, it turns out not to be so silly at all. There’s a nice current there and we were as excited as any children as we hurried from one side to the next to watch the sticks float out from under the bridge. Only downside: Min always seemed to win! I think she’d been studying the currents.

“I expect my stick’s stuck,” said Roo. “Rabbit, my stick’s stuck. Is your stick stuck, Piglet?” House at Pooh Corner.

  There’s a big pile of stuck sticks. But our sticks always managed to float right past the clump of stuck sticks and on down the stream.

All good things must come to an end and Min and I headed back to the car park. We hadn’t noticed that the walk to the bridge was all downhill. We managed to huff and puff our way uphill back to the car, still giggling over our woodland adventure.

For more about the Ashdown Forest:

http://www.ashdownforest.org/   Click on Panorama of the Forest for a very good view of the area

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galleon%27s_Lap#Gills_Lap