Tea & Celebrity

Just back from a three-day visit to Biddeford Intermediate School. Oh, my, my, my! The kids lined up to clap and cheer when I arrived. They sang me a song with fabulous percussion accompaniment at the assembly. And the Life Skills class baked me lemon-poppyseed cake and chocolate chip muffins and brought me tea every single day.

Now, while it’s nice (and I won’t deny it) to be treated like a rock star for three days, the really amazing thing was the way all of this enthusiasm and energy from the teachers and staff was transmitted to the students. They came into my writing workshops with wide eyes, bubbling over with glee, convinced that a middle-aged, mid-list children’s writer is a celebrity, that books and writing and the people who create them are the coolest things ever. That was way more than I could have done on my own in three days of one-hour writing workshops. My writer pals, if you ever get invited to Biddeford Intermediate–go. And not just for the muffins.