Books, Buddies and Belly Laughs!

Miss Hurley was thrilled to meet Avi and get a book signed by him!

Look who else I found!

More Ashaway friends!

Meagan Lenihan at the Lincoln School in Providence organizes an absolutely incredible event that I look forward to every year.  Once again, this year's Rhode Island Festival of Children's Books and Authors was an absolute blast!  I ran into many friends and colleagues who were also enjoying the day, and everyone was in a great mood.  The schedule was packed and once again the day seemed to pass by in a blink!





As always, the presentations by the featured authors were informative and entertaining.  It's so fascinating to hear the stories behind the stories!  Gregory Mone, author of the story Fish, told about his inspiration for creating this tale of pirates and hidden treasure.  It began with him creating a treasure map as a game for his nephews:

Mr. Mone also revealed that, in addition to his stories, he also writes nonfiction articles for the magazine "Popular Science".  He explained how important it is to learn as much as you can about a subject before writing about it, and then he shared an article with us about people who construct drivable furniture.  (Yes, you read that right: as in, furniture you can drive!)  Click here to see the piece he wrote about the world's fastest piece of furniture titled A Nitrous-Injected Dining Room Table!  The crowd was truly impressed by the vehicle's unusual exhaust system: "A six-foot plume of white smoke comes out of the chicken's backside"!  (Mr. Mone kept referring to all the very interesting people he's met during the course of his work for the magazine, but I can assure you that he is just as interesting!)

Jarrett Krosoczka, creator of the Lunch Lady graphic novel series and many picture books, showed us pictures of a book he had written as a boy (complete with title page and copyright date!) and described the long path he followed to become a published author. He described submitting his first story idea to twenty different publishers and then asked us how many did we think showed interest?  When someone guessed that the answer was "one" he replied, "Fewer than that!"  Time after time after time his proposed ideas were turned down, but he refused to give up.  Fans of his work are very grateful for that!

Adam Gidwitz is an amazing storyteller who told the original Grimm version of Cinderella, and it certainly was grim!  He recounted the story with an air of Can you believe this?? that was as hilarious as the story was shocking.  He had the full attention of every single person in the room, and we alternately cringed in our chairs and burst into laughter.  He did demonstrate an acceptable pose to be taken during the course of the story -- fingers in ears, head in lap -- but I didn't see a single person take him up on it.  Even amongst the youngest in the room; no one wanted to miss a moment.  (I was so engrossed that I didn't even take any pictures!!!)  You can enjoy his unique style by picking up his books: A Tale Dark and Grimm, In a Glass Grimly, and The Grimm Conclusion.  

The day concluded with a delightfully unusual presentation by Daniel Handler, a.k.a. "Lemony Snicket's representative".  This man went to great lengths to assure us that he was not in fact the actual author of A Series of Unfortunate Events.  

Daniel Handler used a rubber stamp in each book before signing it to indicate that he was acting as Lemony Snicket's "official representative".

A series of hilarious events: This agenda appeared on the screen at the beginning of his presentation.  It was followed faithfully as the following video snippets will attest!

Video clip below: 

"Very Handsome Man Reads Apology From Lemony Snicket"

Video clips below: 

selections from "Safety Warnings"

Video clip below: 

"Lemony Snicket Excuses Himself and Runs Screaming From the Room"

It was a truly wonderful day filled with books, buddies and belly laughs!  Thanks again to Meagan Lenihan at the Lincoln School for organizing this fantastic event!!