Yesterday I did a book signing/reading at West Side Montessori. It was in a big, bright, cold room, filled with enthusiastic kids and their grownups.
I loved reading Sometimes I'm Bombaloo and its sequel, Jibberwillies at Night, and also Righty & Lefty (A Tale of Two Feet) -- and answering all the questions the kids could come up with.
But my favorite moments were, as always, the conversations with the kids while I was signing their books. One kid and his mom talked about how Bombaloo had helped him get his melt-downs under control. That was pretty awesome. A lot of kids talked about how they feel when they are Bombaloo, or when they have Jibberwillies and can't fall asleep until those perky Jibberwillies are taken care of (and they had some creative suggestions for Katie!) A few mentioned that they'd gone to my website and downloaded their own Jibberwillies (you can too, right here: http://www.rachelvail.com/pages/jibberwilliesatnight.htm). And of course they wanted to talk, after the book, to my Righty and especially my cranky old Lefty!
Then a four-year-old girl, dressed head to toe in purple, asked as she watched me sign her book with my favorite signing pen, "Why is that pen purple?"
It was the first question that stumped me all day. Why is that pen purple?
Have I mentioned that I love kids' questions? They are so often unintentionally philosophical.
Since I couldn't really answer better, I said, "I wanted to sign your book today in purple, because I love the color purple. Do you like purple?"
Her eyes widened under the purple bow and she whispered, "Yes, I do like purple."
"Is it your favorite color?" I asked her, confident in my guess.
She shook her head. "I like all the colors."
"All?" I asked.
"Yes," she said seriously. "But Christopher just likes red, all day long."
That is my favorite sentence of the week. "Christopher just likes red, all day long." I love that little girl, and Christopher, wherever he is, just liking red all day long -- I love him. You go, Christopher.
Maybe tomorrow what I will do is just like red all day long, too.
Love,
Rachel Vail
Just checked my notes. What she said was actually even better:
ReplyDelete"Christopher only likes red all day long."
Sounds like a great title to me.