First, Happy 50th Birthday to Clifford!
Then somehow I got separated from the good camera and had to resort to my cell phone camera when Monkey2 met with some favorite PBS characters.
While I was doing that, Monkey1 was sitting on Dad's shoulders to listen to singer-songwriter and now children's author Jewel talk about writing. Then we waited for the tent to clear out so we could sit down and listen to Mary Pope Osborne, author of the Magic Tree House series, speak. The tent did not clear out. We stood under the edge of the tent, the Monkeys on our shoulders (and in my case, one wrapped to my front too) to listen to her. Half-way through I ducked out to nurse Monkey3. Monkey2 stood forlornly on Dad's foot until I came back.
Then we stood in line to have Jewel sign her children's book That's What I'd Do. While waiting, a three-person camera crew came along asking if anyone wanted to talk about how they liked the Book Festival.
"Does it have to be positive?" asked the guy ahead of me. He was grumpy because Jewel's book had sold out and he was reduced to having her sign the festival program booklet. However, I spoke to them, although the audio person had a conniption over Monkey3 grabbing for the microphone; it made a terrible crackling noise. Move the mic. Restart the sentence. Somewhere on the Library of Congress website about the National Book Festival, I might be in a video clip.
A post-it note inside our book clued Jewel as to how she should inscribe it. She greeted us pleasantly as she squinted at the note, "You have three names?"
"I have three daughters," I answered,
tapping them lightly on their heads as I reeled off their names.
"How silly of me," she said, really looking and seeing us for the first time, "You're all right here!"
After she signed our book, Monkey1 had a question for her. "Where is your little boy?" (Jewel is the mother of a one-year-old.)
Amused, she said he was at home with his daddy, and she really missed him, but would see him again tomorrow night.
Then we joined the line for Mary Pope Osborne, Monkey1 clutching her favorite book, Ghost Town at Sundown. We joined line #10. Ten lines of people hoping to meet her and have her sign a book! And the lines kept forming, one festival volunteer occasionally shouting "Straight line! Make a straight line!" as she moved along with her "End of line" sign.
Eventually we were told that Mary Pope Osborne was not going to sign the books; she had a rubber stamp. We conferred on this, but decided to still wait. Then worse news: the lines exceeding the allotted signing time, festival volunteers had been dispatched with more copies of Mary Pope Osborne's rubber stamp signature. Monkey1 agreed this was not worth waiting for, so we ditched the line for the children's activity tent.
Someone was singing with his guitar, and Monkey1 put herself right up next to the stage, leaned on it on her elbows, and opened a book.
"If she's going to read, we can go home!" I told my husband.
So instructed, she closed her book. And here she is, responding to the singer's query: Give me a character.
"Harry Potter!"
Note: The sign behind the singer says "PBS Kids: Raising Readers." We have at least one in the house.
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