Second graders

Children are so creative. I love it. It’s possibly my favorite part, because it’s what makes them so funny. I love reading their writing. It’s awesome. Here are some things I learned from second-graders [all in the same day, so you know there’s a lot more to learn]:

Old people are always wrinkled. Rockets use batteries. You can be sometimes straight. You sneeze when you smell something sweet. Flies love to buzz around poop. [I actually think I already knew that one.] A knight is strong and braver than a lion.

Also, one day the teacher asked me to do a read-aloud with them with the book “Goldilocks Returns.” It’s about Goldie returning when she’s older to try to fix her years-before breaking and entering chaos. Well, first of all they’re second graders and they don’t understand a lot of the words the author is using, and there’s a lot of text. So I start paraphrasing and feeling nervous because I have no idea what I’m doing and I don’t want 7-year-olds to judge me. And then it happens. One of the little boys puts his head down and says, “This book isn’t even funny and I hate it.”

I.  Am. Crushed.      Sort of.

This is my worst fear as a future children’s book author, a fear that makes me not want to try because I don’t want to fail. What if a teacher is reading one of my books to her class, and one of the kids says that? “This book isn’t even funny and I hate it.” That would be the worst!