The Children’s Book Council named November 11 to 17 Children’s Book Week, and Hanni and I sure celebrated!
I already blogged about the radio show we were on Tuesday. What I didn’t tell you, though, was the reason Betsy and Sal decided to have us on Walking on Air in the first place: they knew it was children’s book Week!
Turns out we were on TV that day, too! WCIA Channel 3 in Champaign, IL did a special Children’s Book Week feature where they offered reading suggestions. Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound was right up there with some pretty well-known children’s books:
1) The Three Snow Bears, by Jan Brett (elementary picture book)
2) Knuffle Bunny Too, by Mo Willems (elementary picture book)
3) Hanni and Beth: Safe and Sound, by Beth Finke (non-fiction picture book)
4) Houdini, the Handcuff King, by Jason Lutes & Nick Bertozzi (biography in comic form)
5) The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick (novel)
Okay, so that was Tuesday. On Wednesday Hanni and I were on the front page of my old hometown paper. If you look at the Elmhurst Press story online, you can link to a video of Hanni and me walking near the Elmhurst train station. As I said in a previous post, “Move Over, Brangelina!” I wonder if fans will start calling us Bethanni?!
Okay, back to earth. Thursday Hanni led me to the doctor’s office so I could get a flu shot. Somehow we managed to even make a doctor’s visit into a Children’s Book Week celebration. The doctor I go to also sees two patients who happen to work on the Oprah Winfrey Show. I left two copies of Safe & Sound with him – he promises to hand them over to the Oprah connections the next time they are in the office. I’ll let you know when Oprah calls.
Hanni and I ended our Children’s Book Week celebration today with a visit to St. Athanasius School in Evanston, IL. I spoke to first and second graders. Of course they are all geniuses – you have to be in order to spell the school’s name!
Tomorrow morning we head off to the Bookstall in Winnetka. My friend Kate has offered to drive Hanni and me there and help us with signing – and pawprinting – books. Good thing Thanksgiving week is coming up – Children’s Book Week has worn us out. We’ll need the break from all this celebrating!
OK, so Channel 3 thinks it’s non-fiction. What do they know? Maybe they believe Hanni can write. Do you have a keyboard with dog-paw-sized keys?
I clicked on the link. You left The Spiderwick Chronicles out of your version of the list. It was the VERY FIRST fiction that my son has chosen to read and enjoyed (Harry Potter is the second and latest).
You’re in good company.
Oops! Forgive me, Spiderwick!
About the fact or fiction thing — I love Francine’s comment to my last post — I think I’ll start using the “controversy” during school visits to talk to kids about what the difference is between fiction and non-fiction.
Beth–The kids and the teachers loved having you at St. A’s. My wife and I received many compliments. You were so comfortable and open in front of the kids. Truly you were “masterful”. Thanks so much.
No need to thank us – we really enjoyed our visit to St. Athenesius, what a great group of kids. Terrific teachers, too! And guess what?! Two of the kids –and their parents –showed up at the Bookstall yesterday morning to have me sign (and Hanni rubber stamp her paw print onto) copies of “Safe & sound.” The girls were Genevieve and Isabelle — both in the second grade. They were adorable, of course, and it made Hanni and me feel so good to have kids come from St. A’s to the signing. Thanks for having us, St. A’s!
Beth! You completely botched up the spelling of St. Athanasius again on your blog! St. A’s is probably a safe bet for you.
And here’s something you might not know about this terrific saint. You may or may not know that saints in the Catholic Church are those whose lives represent
greatness in many ways. Long after their death, their lives, deeds, miracles, and lots of other things are considered in determining their candidacy for
sainthood.
Once a person is declared a saint, he/she becomes the patron saint of something. For example, St. Jude is the patron saint of hopeless cases. He earned
this patronage because people used to confuse him with Judas, who betrayed Jesus the night before his death. So, they hated Jude (thinking he was Judas)
and never prayed to him unless nothing else worked. And he answered those prayers–thus, he became the patron saint of hopeless cases.
In any event, I thought you would find it quite interesting that St. Athanasius is the patron saint of handicapped children. I will spare you the details
on how he earned this patronage, but I still thought you’d find his patronage interesting.
Cool story about St. Athenas…St. Athunasa…St. Ath…
Cool story about St. a!
Is there a patron saint for hopeless spellers?
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