Sahara, Jake, and I drove 45 minutes this evening to a neighboring town’s elementary school and met author/illustrator Jan Brett who stopped there as part of her book tour.  The place was packed! She did a brief drawing lesson with the kids who attended and talked about her inspiration for her new book, Turnip, and encouraged everybody in attendance to be creative and draw or write something daily.

She signed books and items for two and a half hours after that!  She was as sweet and kind to those at the end of the line as she was to those who were first.

We took three of her books to get signed and our GINGERBREAD BABY!  That has been a favorite for all of our kids, and he really shows it.

He’s missing his nose from a bout with our old dog, Bogey, and his buttons are scuffed from being drug around on the wood floors by crawling babies, tiny toddlers, and rough preschoolers. He is well loved, and it shows in his appearance! Jan said she hadn’t seen a gingerbread baby in a long time!

Jan was very talkative with the kids, asking them about their art, did they like to draw, etc.  It was wonderful to get to share this experience with Sahara and Jake;  I’m so glad we went!