Author Sighting

Dad found out that our local book store was hosting author Mac Barnett to read from his latest book Leo, A Ghost Story.

From the author:

Leo, A Ghost Story introduces readers to Leo, a gentle little ghost who’s invisible to most people. One day he meets Jane, a little girl who can see him. She thinks he’s her imaginary friend, and Leo’s left in a quandary. Should he tell her he’s a ghost? People are afraid of ghosts and Leo doesn’t want to scare Jane.

“His being a ghost is a secret,” Barnett tells us. “He says, ‘If I tell her who I am, I’ll scare her away.’ There are so many people who feel that way, especially with new friends. That’s the emotion that I was trying to access, the feeling that when you show yourself, that could be scary.” 

After the author read the story, the kids got to be knighted like Leo pretended to be in the story.  They also could have created their own Coat of Arms but Collin was not interested in doing this.  Dad said he had a lot of fun and really liked hearing how the author read the book to the kids.  It made a difference to hear how the author intended for the story to flow and made it that much more interesting.

Author reading the book

Getting his own copy of the book signed

Being knighted like Leo was in the book

When I got home that night, Collin was excited to show me the book and tell me the story about Leo. We took turns reading the book.  I noticed not only did he have more patience with himself while reading, he was able to figure out most of the difficult words without complaining or pretending he did not have a voice like he has done before.  He even answered several questions I asked about the book afterwards like the main characters names, what they did in the book, why did he think only Jane could see Leo, etc.  While he was thinking about the answer to one of the questions, he said, "I know what you are doing.  You are asking questions like the teacher does to see if I understand what we read".  He was also really happy to point out that this fulfilled his required reading later.  He was eager to initial the spot on his weekly report card back to the teacher that he read for 20 minutes.  I hated to break it to him that, while he did read, it was not even close to 20 minutes.  

I tried to sneak in a book later that night before bed without success.  He was just too tired to push him to do something he did not want to do.  However, we talked about the book store event more.  He wants to do it again and wants me to be there next time.  I explained why I was not there and said I will try to make it another time.