Cynthia Lord's Blog, page 56

Thank you, Hollis Elementary School!

I had a lovely day yesterday with the students at Hollis Elementary School in Hollis, Maine.  I had the chance to speak with all the kids in Grades K-5.  Everyone made me feel very welcome!

When I walked into the library, I was greeted by a wonderful display of presents for Hamster's birthday from the Kindergartners. Hamster would love all his presents!  Here are a few.

Every party needs cake and hats!

  

How fun! A motorcycle and a PlayStation!

  

A new house and a rocketship!

  

And Hamster loves to read!  So it's wonderful that his friend the Pigeon came to the party, and Hamster got a new Mercy Watson book!

  

It felt like it was my birthday, too!  Look at this wonderful cake we had at lunch!



Thank you to Regan Vitti, the wonderful librarian at Hollis, and to everyone at Hollis Elementary School for an awesome, lucky, groovy-great day!

Happy Mother's Day!

Photo by my husband, John

For My Mom and Dad

She did it! :-)

Graduation Day!

My daughter is graduating college today. And yet, when I look at her, I still see glimpses of this little girl.


Happy Graduation Day, Julia!

Five on a Friday

DCU Center, Worcester, Massachusetts

1.  On Wednesday, I spoke at the Massachusetts Library Association conference in Worcester, Massachusetts.  It was a great conference and I had so much fun.  Everyone was very friendly and warm to me. As part of their auction, I gave away a signed set of books and a free library visit. I'm anxious to find out who won!

2.  My daughter, Julia, graduates college TOMORROW. How can that be possible?!  And yet, there it is on the calendar. :-)

3.  My little assistant is very excited to get back to work.

  

4.  I've been enjoying this loon cam from Minnesota. I grew up on a lake with loons, and my new book has loons in it. I even had the webcam on when the female laid her first egg (there are two now).  It was exciting to see and funny to read the comments on the scrolling chat.  It was like the loon had hundreds of Lamaze coaches.  "PUSH!" "You can do it!"

5.  I'm getting down to the end of my events for this school year. I have six left now, three of which are next week. That will be a busy week:  Maine, Florida, New York. 

Lucky Catch!

How cool that a few days after I visited Winterport to talk about Touch Blue, a Winterport lobsterman caught this rare lobster!  Thank you, Michelle Reasso for sharing this with me!



Rare Calico Lobster Caught in Winterport on Display at the New England Aquarium

It's a Book Baby!

 Congratulations! It's a bouncing book-baby!

Name: See You at Harry's
Date: May 8, 2012
Weight: 310 pages
Proud Parent: Jo Knowles  ( jbknowles )
Godparents: Candlewick

A Happy Ending

Back in March there was a story in our newspaper about a pair of bald eagles that had fought each other up in the trees to the point of exhaustion, each gripping the other and unwilling to let go.  The Maine Warden service came, and finally one eagle released the other.  One flew off and the second eagle was injured in the fall from the trees. 



Yesterday, I was so pleased to see this follow-up video on the Portland Press Herald website. 

Rules in TURKISH!

According to Google Translate, the title is:  MY BROTHER. 

Winterport, Maine

  

I had an awesome day yesterday visiting the elementary school and the middle school in Winterport, Maine.

   The middle school had done an all-school read of Touch Blue.  I was greeted with superstitions and lines from the book in the hallways.

  


We had a wonderful pot luck lunch that included whoopie pies!  And there was a beautiful display across from the office. 



As an author, it's amazing to see your book choices and words come to life in someone else's hands.



Here I am with Michelle, the librarian at Wagner who made this all happen. The kids were so well prepared and friendly. It was a delight.



When I finished my talk, the jazz band director said I should now take a seat in the audience, because they had a surprise for me.
Since Touch Blue is about luck and superstition, the kids had learned to play "Superstition" for me and they played it for the school.



It was such a wonderful moment. I loved it and and I loved them.