When I first lost my sight, friends came up with suggestions. “Here’s something you could do,” they’d say, their voices gushing with enthusiasm. They’d read a story about a blind guy who para-sails, a blind woman who ran the Chicago marathon, someone who canoed, another who loved his tandem kayak. “You could do that, Beth!” […]

How are Hanni’s dreams? That question was my favorite of all the ones asked during this week’s school visits to Long Island. And trust me, there was lots of competition. Runners up: Do newspapers come out in Braille? I know we can’t pet Hanni when her harness is on, but can you? Are all Seeing […]

This Tuesday Hanni and I head to Long Island – we’ll be visiting three different schools while we’re there. During our last visit, I thought it was kismet that we were there the very day David Paterson was named governor. David Paterson lost sight in his left eye and much of the sight in his […]

When Hanni and I showed up to do a session at the bring books to life Book Fair last night, we were told that Grammy-award winner Ella Jenkins had confirmed with the Chicago Children’s Museum at the very last minute. “Do you mind sharing your presentation space with her?” Mind? You gotta be kidding. It […]

Hanni and I have visited 4 schools in the past couple of weeks. Five, if you count a side trip to my alma mater, York High School in Elmhurst IL. But I’ll get to that later. First, the elementary schools. Reavis Elementary in Chicago, Jefferson Elementary in Milwaukee, Kipling and Wilmot Elementary Schools in Deerfield, […]