Children's Book Festival in Athens, GA!

veggie painting at COMO (Athens, GA) Oct. 2016

I am excited to be traveling today to the Children's Book Festival in Athens, Georgia. I am a Georgia peach, after all!

This is my first time to attend the festival, and I am delighted to be presenting once again my FRESH DELICIOUS program "Reading is Delicious: Fun, Fresh Programming for Kids." Among other things, we will be using jeweler's loupes to create analogies AND painting with asparagus. :)

I also have a new veggie book to share with the librarians: FRESH-PICKED POEMS: A Day at the Farmers' Market by Michelle Schaub. It was my good fortune to meet Michelle at Poetry Camp last summer, and she is a peach for sure! When I asked her about sharing a poem, she sent me "Pile Up," and added these comments: "I probably had the most fun writing this poem.  I got a little carried away playing up the alliteration and assonance when choosing words, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself in the process.  I also liked coming up with the twist, or maybe I should say "tumble" at the end."

Here is the poem:

Pile Up

Farmer Rick's meticulous
when setting up his stand.
He places all his items
into stacks precisely planned.
His cauliflower towers
take him eons to align.
His pyramids of peppers
show impeccable design.
No one sloppy heap of beets,
no single misplaced pea.
Each veggie castle he constructs
has perfect symmetry.
But when Miss Mallory arrives
Rick sports a wary smile -
she always picks her produce from
the bottom of the pile!

- Michelle Schaub

Isn't that fun?! Congratulations, Michelle!

Speaking of fun, the festivities in Athens also include an SCBWI sponsored "authors in your backyard" session, as well as a reception. I am excited to meet more Georgia educators, librarians and book-lovers -- and of course to see SCBWI friends!