Wow!  I just met with a group of amazing girls yesterday!  I’d been invited a while ago by Trinity Episcopal here in Danville, KY to be part of their Summer Reading Group.  Yesterday I arrived at Trinity to discover there were only 3 members of the program, but the small number made no difference at all!  The three gals I met and spent some time with had so much presence, enthusiasm and spark — enough for a whole roomful of readers!

First of all, what great questions!  Each one of these young minds had very focused, very specific questions about the story I read, the book itself, the art, how the art gets to the page….just really terrific!  I read from That Book Woman, and then we talked about the Pack Horse Librarians (first question: were they all women? Answer: no, but there were only a few men who worked as PHL’s), talked about the time period (1930’s), about the poverty and lack of schools or libraries back then.  We talked about old time customs, like drinking Sassy Tea and looking at how thick the black band around the middle of a wooly worm is as a way of predicting how cold the next winter will be.

All three girls — Lina, Addie, and Jade — like to write stories as well.  We talked about the journals they’re creating, and they said they might help me out with some ideas for a book I’ve been trying to write about “Runaway Hennie,” my son’s pet chicken who seems to disappear all day long and then reappears mysteriously at night as if nothing has happened.

What does Runaway Hennie do all day anyway?  Maybe the girls can come up with some good ideas this week!  Maybe I could post them on my blog here!

Anyway, it was just a special day.  Thanks so much to Jan at Trinity for inviting me, and thanks to all the other folks there who were so friendly and welcoming.

But the biggest thanks of all goes to you girls!  You are the BEST!  Don’t lose that curiosity!  Don’t lose that love of learning!  Don’t lose that spunk and that unique thing that makes you YOU!!!!  Don’t lose that fantastic GIRL POWER!!!!!

Love and xxx’s and oooo’s to A, L, and J!!!!!