Thursday, April 3, 2008

Young Readers (& Writers)

I spent last week in Minneapolis, representing Kane/Miller at the national conference for the Public Library Association.

Actually, I stayed in St. Paul (where I was born and raised) with my parents. My son traveled with me to experience the meaning of Spring: watching the final bits of snow and ice melt.

We flew from San Diego on the same flight as Brian Selznick, author/illustrator of award-winning The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Brian, my son and I, and a hand full of other travelers spent almost that entire day in the San Diego airport as our 8:45am flight was delayed by nearly five hours.

Brian, on top of the fact that he is a brilliant illustrator and a fabulous storyteller, is also a great individual. He was genuinely interested as my son showed him how his toy worked and explained the fundmanetals of having a car that changes into a robot. I have a great respect for anyone who takes the time to listen to a child - especially when one is waiting at the airport.

While at PLA, I purchased two signed copies of one of Jon Scieszka's new books - one for my son, the other for my nephew. They both loved the book, of course.

After explaining to my son how lucky he is to have such a wonderful library of books (some of which he has yet to grow into) and the opportunity to meet authors and illustrators, it occurred to me that it might be something he can comprehend just yet.

But, as he often does, my son surprised me. Last night at dinner, he announced out of the blue, "When I am a grown-up, I'm going to write a story and there's going to be NO pictures."

I can't wait.

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