Yesterday... I had a wonderful school visit at Young Author's Day down in Baraga, Michigan where everything went perfectly (well, everything except the hot and humid weather) and they treated me like a *famous author*. Kids hugged me! The faculty was ridiculously nice, the kids were so well-behaved and asked good questions. They gave me a *gorgeous* flower arrangement and a very cool t-shirt with my name on it. And I got ice cream!

Yesterday... I found out that a very kind author I know had recommended me to that Young Author's Day committee as a speaker and it was so nice to discover she had that kind of confidence in me.

Yesterday... two authors who I admire and respect a great deal solicited MY opinion on manuscripts they had written.

Yesterday... a really sweet author I know related a small yet charming anecdote to me about an experience she had out in the *real world* with one of my books (by the way, this NEVER gets old!)

Yesterday... an editor who I admire tremendously and have been anxious to work with since I met her three years ago offered me a book contract!!

Today... I am so very grateful for my writing career and all the wonderful people I have met and continue to meet while doing the thing I most *love* to do in the world- write books for children.

Thank you everyone for making my yesterdays and todays so very, very awesome!

:)

Editorial Anonymous has asked the question, "What's on your 'I Want To Read!' list?" She has two of mine on her list! So, I must respond in kind (especially since I haven't done one of these posts like this in a while- what's up with that?)...

I love looking forward to books with sweet anticipation! Sometimes they come through and meet or exceed my wild expectations, sometimes they don't. But it sure is fun to salivate over (and pre-order!) books like these:


Yeah, that would be one good-looking bookshelf...

:)

You know I am all about getting kids, especially boys, to read.

There are two terrific websites that I want to make SURE you know about.

ReadKiddoRead.com, a website started by James Patterson (he's an author, but I've never read any of his books...must investigate...), is one I learned about via Fuse #8's great interview with Judy Freeman last month. There are so many good book recommendations in that post alone! I have a great deal of respect for their book selection process. Go to ReadKiddoRead and find books KIDS WILL LIKE TO READ.

The other must-see website is GuysRead.com. It's been around for a while and is spearheaded by Jon Scieszka. I think it takes a slightly broader approach to book selection and has a few more traditional recommendations on the whole than Patterson's site, but I think they are stepping up their game a bit now. Scieszka and the other authors behind Guys Read are putting out a book this fall called Guys Read: Funny Business and they have a hilarious You Tube trailer for it, which I will attempt to put here:



Since my son has checked out the nearly-falling-apart Jokelopedia book from the school library approximately 124 times, I can assure you that this video rings very true! I'm excited for the book to come out- these authors are a terrific bunch who truly care about getting boys to read. A nobler cause does not exist (well, of course, world peace and ending hunger and stuff like that, but, y'know...)

:)