We Interrupt #OctopusMonth For An Important Message

Wow, we are halfway through #OctopusMonth! I've got a slew of lovely octopus poems to share with you this week, starting tomorrow. Today I want to take a moment to say...

Thanks for being AWESOME!

...and to share some of my adventures from last week, because they were oh so amazing.

After more than a year of planning, it was my pleasure to be a part of a grant in honor of Alabama's Bicentennial which included me sharing my books -- esp. the Alabama-related ones like LEAVING GEE'S BEND, FRESH DELICIOUS (agriculture!) and CAN I TOUCH YOUR HAIR? (civil rights) -- with students in Morgan County, Alabama.

I cannot begin to tell you what an amazing experience this was! Here's an article that tells about the "wax museum" Lacey's Spring jr. high students created based on LEAVING GEE'S BEND. It was one of the best moments of my writing life -- and y'all, I've had some good ones. It makes me tear-y just remembering! I'm so, so grateful.

And here's more Bicentennial news... CAN I TOUCH YOUR HAIR? has been included on the official "Bicentennial Bookshelf." Charles and I are honored and delighted!

I look forward to posting more about my time in Morgan County after #OctopusMonth. :)

On the topic of LOVE, AGNES, I learned a few things last week about reading the book aloud:

1. It's hard to hold a microphone and also flip the pages.
2. It's IMPOSSIBLE to use finger puppets AND hold a microphone and also flip the pages!

see those finger puppets?

To solve this problem, April Childers, art-teacher/grant-writer/amazing person held the book for me... But even that wasn't enough!

Fortunately, when I read the book during "Storytime" at yesterday's neighborhood Fall Festival, I figured it out: involve the kids! Duh, right? So I asked for volunteers, and assigned four different kids the four different characters in the book, and when it was that character's turn, that kid had a chance to hold up the finger puppet for all to see. Win-win! And then? The kids wrote postcards. :)

See you here tomorrow with poems from Donna, who blogs at Mainely Write!