The Child on the Page - Wrap up!

If you've never been to Auburn, you've got to go. What a beautiful town filled with inspired, brilliant people! I was thrilled to be a speaker for the inaugural Child on the Page annual Writers Conference conference in Alabama (the brain child of Chantel Acevedo made possible through Jay Lamar of the Center for the Arts & Humanities). But even better was spending time hanging out with folks like Dan Latimer, Julianna Baggott, Irene Latham, Rachel Hawkins, Doc Waller of The Layman Group, Peter Huggins and his lovely wife, Chris, Holly Root, awesome Humanities angels Maiben Beard, Nancy Griggs, and Jay Lamar, etc...!
     I drove over early on Thursday to visit two elementary schools. Hopefully I'll have more photos to share with you soon, but just to get an idea of the warm welcomes - here is the sign Jennifer Dempsey, media specialist at Wrights Mill Road Elementary, had her kids pull together using my "Reading Witch" coloring page and the cover of LULA'S BREW:

     And no matter your opinion of eBooks and apps, I have to share... The kids had been reading my picture book app LULA'S BREW (via an overhead projector and Ms. Dempsey's iPhone) - and that's what they wanted to hear (along with my other books). So, I literally showed my iPad and read along with the story. That was sure a first for me!! (Was it a first for the world??) WOW!      Remarkably, the kids didn't turn green, nobody sprouted scales - they just enjoyed a fun story. Of course, I had to wonder - did they have any idea what a revolutionary moment that was? I tell ya - the future is NOW.
     I then visited Richland Elementary. Here I am with Deana Schnuelle, their media specialist, who had the kids make this FANTABULOUS welcome sign...

as well as this sign using my "Reading Vampire" coloring page. Could this be more adorable?

     There, I shared my latest book, THE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS, as well as SOAP, SOAP, SOAP!
     In other words, it was a FABULOUS weekend! And they're already planning next year's conference. If you can, you should definitely go!

Maiben took some cute pics of me with the kids at Wrights Mill Road Elementary, here are two, but the rest are on Flickr.