Lively, efficient and fun is how the event put on by the California Scholar Share program went down. The children enjoyed themselves and were encouraged to read. Parents of little ones learned about getting set up for the inevitable--that babies eventually turn in to teens who will (hopefully!) go off to college.
Fairy Tale Town, located in the meandering green gracious land of William Land Park, was the perfect place to hold the event. It is already set up with playgrounds, a petting zoo, and Old Mother Hubbard's Shoe. What a great way to correlate having fun and being happy with reading stories.
Francie, the emcee for the book readers, was contagiously cheerful. Wearing a mike that could be heard through out Fairy Tale Town, she drew in a constant audience for the storytellers. The children and parents could relax on the grass clearing in front of the stage and be entertained to the magic of books.
In honor of Halloween, I passed out vampire teeth for children to discover their mouths, rubber witch claws for hands, pumpkin whistles for voices, a fake foot, and dog, bunny and Groucho Marx noses for smelling. Sharing the Royal Reading Throne with me was a lovely young lady holding the baby doll and a two year old who just wanted to sit next to me. At every 'Hey Little Baby' line, we all waved to the baby. Let me tell you--we had a blast!
After the rewarding reading, I met with people, signed books, and enjoyed the sunshine at a temperature we don't often feel in Humboldt County. The authors I was lucky enough to chat with were Bob Barner and Sandy Lynne Holman. I was thoroughly impressed with how Bob Barner creates non-fiction works in to engaging literature for children. On each page, a large kid-friendly font with an easy to read sentence tells about the subject and a smaller font paragraph gives the factual knowledge. Also, he uses mixed media to illustrate his own books. Sandy Lynne Holman was vibrant and charismatic. I'm not sure who had more fun, her or the audience, when she told her story with laughter, marching, dancing and song. The kids were thrilled. She even had purple wings!
Time Tested Books was there to sell the books that we authors were reading and signing. Peter, the owner, had an obvious love of books and a kind, warm presence that I'm sure attracted children. Thank you to him and his employees for providing the books that day for us to sign.
It was another fun, wonderful day signing books and chatting with book loving people and children. I look forward to going again next year and hope that I will be there promoting a second book!
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