Safe & Sound blog readers have been asking me lately if the memoir-writing classes I lead are starting up again now, and, if so, “Will you start publishing essays by your students on your blog again, too? I always like those.” My answers? Yes, and yes! Today is the first of October, I’ll be leading […]

Mark your calendars: the 37th annual Printers Row Lit Fest is next weekend! This year’s two-day literary extravaganza in Chicago takes place on Saturday and Sunday, September 10 and 11. The fest features close to 150 presenters, And I’m one of them. Date: Saturday, September 10 Time: 11am to 11:45 a.m. Location: Grace Place (637 […]

You know those “Questions Kids Ask” lists I post here after visiting third-grade classrooms with Luna? Those visits are arranged by a disability awareness program called “Educating Outside the Lines,” and every one of the schools they have me visit is located in…Highland Park, Illinois. ”Is your dog blind, too?” they ask. “Is it scary […]

Any time I publish one of these “Questions Kids Ask” posts listing the questions I get at the school presentations I do with my Seeing Eye dogs, our friend and neighbor Mel Theobald hounds, excuse the pun, me to tell him what my answers were. And every time he asks, I come back with the […]

It’s Disability Awareness Week at Red Oak Elementary School in Highland Park, Illinois, and when we arrived there Tuesday the third graders were eager to learn all they could about what it’s like to be blind and use a Seeing Eye dog. Their questions were priceless. Here are some of them: Did you go from […]