It’s Book Week at the Margaret Neary School in Southboro, Massachusetts, and yesterday I was part of the festivities.
I visited with Neary’s four hundred or so fourth and fifth graders and talked a bit about earthworms and trash and revising and mistakes. The Neary kids were a fantastic audience, motivated and interested and willing to ask questions. I particularly enjoyed my small group lunches (two of them!) with students. We munched PB&Js and Caesar salads and talked books and movies and ladybugs and processionary caterpillars.
I signed books at the end of the day in the Neary library, which has been transformed for Book Week. It was a treat for me to watch them shop, pawing through piles of books, soliciting opinions from eachother, opening a cover to read a few lines and standing, transfixed, for a whole chapter.
The Neary kids are in for an amazing week … author Carolyn Coman will be visiting them tomorrow and on Thursday they will meet illustrator Ralph Masiello. Many thanks to parent and Book Week organizer Ellen Faherty, librarian Laurie Woodfin, and all the faculty and students I met at Neary. Happy Book Week to all of you!