smart before self, bloom before doom, substance before stuff!

Cute sign they made for my visit

Over the weekend I got to participate in yet another Scholastic Book Fair selling Petalwink books and for the first time, Fifties Chix (Travel to Tomorrow) books. It was blast! I spend so much time in front of my computer either writing or researching my stories OR arranging book signings and working on marketing stuff, that it was like breathing clean cool air to be surrounded by k-8th graders for four days. Seeing their response to Fifties Chix was particularly heartening. There were at least three kids who ran over to show their friends T2T and said, "This is the best book. I mean, I haven't read it yet, but I love it."(And then they bought it and so did their friends. I really do hope they love it. Yikes with the pressure!)

I had given my "Finding Your True Voice" creative writing/character development workshop (a slightly down-sized version) to the 5th and 6th graders at that school. One of the exercises we did was thinking about what their story's protagonist sees when they look at themselves in the mirror. (It was nearly unanimous across 200 kids that what we see when we look at ourselves in the mirror is not what other people see when they look at us.) I asked what a pop-star sees when they look at themselves in the mirror (the comments were none too flattering, let me tell you); then I asked what Mother Theresa sees when she looks at herself in the mirror. It was interesting, because about her they spoke in terms of qualities; not one person said what she looked like (older, short, dark hair, etc). The best response was that when she looked in the mirror, she saw "the child of God." Yeah, I had to take a moment there. I had such an inspiring time with them!

I'll be making that  "Finding Your True Voice" workshop universal when I give it at 2 libraries this month-where it will also be filmed and webcast live on Ustream. Sign up today to participate at the libraries if you're in St. Louis area or come see me on the web and join the growing movement of kids who put smart before self, bloom before doom, substance before stuff!