Red buds, red duds, red bubs

I just spent a lovely day at Chisholm Elementary School in Edmond, Oklahoma. It really couldn't have been more perfect: well-prepared, well-behaved kids, scrumptious treats brought in to eat (these amazing frosted cake balls - trust me, they were delicious!), librarians I could have talked to forever.

Now that my boys, at ages 18 and 21, are too big to provide fodder for my books, and I no longer have the chance to serve as a parent volunteer in their classrooms, I walk through school hallways hungry for story material. A couple of years ago I scored big when I saw a hallway display of student work for an assignment in which students had to come up with ideas for how they would change the world. That was the seed for How Oliver Olson Changed the World. I even borrowed two student ideas verbatim: the jet-powered skateboard, and the plan from one little girl - "I would give food to poor people so that they won't starve, and if they starve, I will go to their funerals."

I didn't get any full-blown book ideas today, but I did get to see a delightful bulletin board with the heading, "SPRINGTIME IN OKLAHOMA." Featured on it were kindergarten pictures of red bud trees in bloom, the buds made of tiny pieces of crumpled pink tissue paper, the pictures labeled by the kindergarteners with their kindergarten writing and spelling: "red buds," "red duds," "red bubs." That put springtime in my heart right there."

Sometimes I think I should write about other subjects than kids at school - something enduring and timeless, not so grounded in the here and now. But then I go to a school for an author visit and see a bulletin board with red duds and red bubs in bloom, and I think, what could possibly be better than this?