Queen for a Week

I'm writing this in the Houston airport, after an exhausting, exhilarating week of author visits to ten schools in the book-crazed Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District. I'm astonished yet again by the wonderfulness of librarians who can generate so much excitement in second and third graders about books and the lucky people who write them.

I feel like a queen right now - a very tired and happy queen.

This is what it's like to arrive at Bang Elementary:

This is what it's like to enter the library at Kirk Elementary (I think it was Kirk - after such a full week, the magic all starts to blur together).

In case I didn't already feel like visiting royalty, I was crowned Reading Queen (no doubt inspired by my Kelsey Green, Reading Queen) at Sampson Elementary:

And, as if my head weren't puffed up enough already, here is Ashlyn, at Millsap Elementary, in the shirt she designed and wore for the occasion:

Now I still have to WRITE the books. I did write one page a day each morning in my lovely Hampton Inn, forcing myself out of the world's most comfortable bed to do so. It was easy, with this as my reward. Thank you, Cy-Fair librarians, for a week I'll remember always.