I am not kidding! Here’s the story …
I coach my daughter’s instructional league softball team. (Maybe you have heard of us? We are the West Boylston Pink Panthers, and we rock!) I was lucky enough to have help from a brave and beautiful parent, Kristi, who only recently moved to town. Kristi and I worked with the Pink Panthers all season—showing the girls what we could remember about fielding and throwing and (heaven help them) hitting—but didn’t find much time for chit-chat. On Saturday, however, at the end-of-the-season Panthers extravaganza, Kristi and I managed to talk about things other than softball. And it turns out she and I have a lot in common besides our panther-daughters: we are both in children’s books. Kristi works for Scholastic Book Fairs!
There followed a raucous conversation about books. Eventually Kristi let slip that she was currently reading the new Suzanne Collins book.
I nearly fainted.
“You mean the new, new Suzanne Collins book? As in the sequel to THE HUNGER GAMES? As in the Advanced Reader copy of CATCHING FIRE? As in, you actually have the ARC in your house right now? What are you doing here? Why are you not home reading? When will you finish? Please, oh please, oh please can I read it after you?”
Kristi now thinks I am a nut. But that is okay, because I am a nut. And this nut now has in her hot little hands an Advanced Reader Copy of CATCHING FIRE!
Must. Go. Read.