Children's Article

My first children's article was published today in The Christian Science Monitor.

This is the link:

http://www.csmonitor.com/homeforum/kidspace.html

The article is called "Court for Kids: It's Your Turn to Be the Judge."

I'm very excited about this because I've tried to get an article in this newspaper for about a year. Also, the story provides evidence that I really am a children's writer. I only wish I had this proof when I went to talk to Johnny's class last week.

A little advice for writers: do not volunteer to talk to kids unless you have a book in hand. They will think you are lying to them. One little girl asked me, "If you're a writer, why haven't I ever seen any of your books?"

She had a point. The only evidence I had to show them was a book about the Beastie Boys, which I didn't write, but is similar to a book I wrote that is coming out in 2009.

But it was very fun to talk to the class. My presentation was called "How a Book is Made" and the kids played the roles of editors in New York and illustrators. Johnny volunteered to be an editor but was disappointed that he didn't get a speaking part because the second editor accepted the manuscript before he got a chance to look at it. If only that would happen in real life.

The funniest part about talking to kids is when you ask a question and whoever raises his hand with the most enthusiasm and confidence--you can be pretty sure that kid doesn't know the answer. Nor does he even have a guess. He just tells you, "I don't know."

I think it's refreshing for someone to raise his hand to say, "I don't know." You don't see that much outside of grade school.

***

One person who doesn't say "I don't know" about any subject is Richie. On Easter, we had a private suite at church, a.k.a. the cry room. There, Richie told us what Easter is all about.

"You know Jofish?" he asked. "Jofish who knows God?"

"Yes," we said.

"Well, Jofish and Mary, they ate a tree. And they got in trouble...wait a second...no it wasn't a tree..."

"Was it an apple?" Justin asked.

"Yeah, they ate a poison apple and they died. And Jesus came back to life."

There it is. The story of the Bible in 50 words or less. I can see Richie in class, listening to about five seconds of what his teacher said...back in December...and figuring, "Okay, I get it. Mary, Jofish, they had the baby, I assume they ate the apples, too...Hmm, I like carmel apples the best..."

Later on in the day, my cousin Hannah asked Richie, "Are you trying to say Joseph?"

"Yeah," he said. "Joiss, Jofish, Jofiss, ahhhhh, How do you say it?!"

Hmm...I think you pronounce it Adam.