Awards and A Lit Fest

This past week was Emily's final day and there was an award ceremony at the school that we do our independent studies through. As is customary, each year as the sixth graders leave elementary behind for jr. high, the teachers choose a student of the year for each category they attend on their bi/monthly Fridays. This year, Emily won Art Student of the Year. She also won a superior ribbon for her poetry entry in the ACSI Writing Contest. Needless to say, that girl makes me smile.

I wasn't able to stay for the Field Day after, as I normally do, because I had to leave for New York and the Millbrook Literary Festival. The event was a bit on the slow side, and I didn't sell much; but I had a fabulous time catching up with my good friends the Mojicas. Victor writes and illustrates his own works as well as illustrating for Barbara who writes a history series. Together they make a formidable team. There latest collaboration is their book about Ford's Theater.

I also met and chatted with some Face Book friends I hadn't personally met yet. There was the oh so kind and charming Susanna Leonard Hill, author and host of writing contests, and her table mate the fantastic Nancy Furstinger. I also made some new friends like the talented Karen Kaufman Orloff and the talented illustrator/author Isabelle Garbani whose book, The Secret Elephant, is too, too funny. And I was delighted to be sandwiched between the eloquent David Cundy and the charismatic David Neilsen. David Neilsen charmingly shared with me the back story of how Chris Grabenstein helped him get published. So if his work is good enough to be promoted by Chris, I'm pretty sure you want to check it out. Just listening to the spiel, for his soon to be released book, made me wish I had more time to read chapter books.

Nancy, Me, and Susanna

Me and Karen

Isabelle Garbani

David Neilsen

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Join me next week for another exciting episode, same crazy time, same crazy channel. Also be sure to drop by Literacy Musings Mondays for more great blogs as well as my personal website Fun With Aileen where you will find more on reading, writing, and my very own chapter and picture books. And finally, you can find me on twitter @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days.