Well, last night was a late late night for our clan and a huge day for #1. You see, #1 is probably the biggest fan that author Rick Riordan has ever met. Riordan is a children's author and May 1st was the BIG HUGE release of the much anticipated 3rd book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series. We've had it marked on our calendar for months. Having read and re-read the first two books, our #1 has been chomping at the bit to get his hands (and eyes) on the third installation. So...we had Bookpeople hold a copy and picked it up right after school. He started reading immediately. Then after soccer practice we went back to Bookpeople to attend the release party and the book signing. Well, what a great experience for our #1. He was very excited to hear the author read an excerpt from the book. He also came to realize that he doesn't ever really need to be one of the people that are so excited about the book that they dress like the story characters - I guess he is like his dad that way, a stand back and observe kind of guy!
So we got to Bookpeople around 6:00pm and we were walking out a little after 10:00pm. It was a pull a number sort of system. My dH expects there were over 500 kids there last night. It was CRAZZZZZYYYYY!!!! We couldn't possibly leave though because our #1 was so so so excited to meet Riordan and have his book signed. So we waited...and waited...and waited...until finally, sometime after 9:00pm they called our group of numbers. Woo hoo! At that point, we got in a line on the first floor (which ran through the store) and patiently made our way all through the store and up three flights of stairs until...PRESTO...Mr. Riordan was sitting at a nice table kindly signing every child's book and very enthusiastically answering every child's question. What a great author! Our #1 came home last night with a smile from ear to ear and an even greater appreciation for the written word. It was a wonderful opportunity to see how a book can touch people both near and far and from all walks of life.
Thank you Mr. Riordan.
P.S. You might also want to know that we were not even the end of the line. Many people were waiting after us! And, I'm happy to report that #1 is on page 63 and chugging along. I think he hopes to be done with the book by the weekend!
4 comments:
What awesome parents you are! Things like that have such a huge impact on kids.
Did you have the other kids with you?
I LOVE the look on his little face! :)
Yay for reading! I'm so proud of and happy for #1! And I'd like to borrow those books sometime and read them, if he wouldn't mind!
I've actually had lunch a couple of times with Rick. When I was an English teacher, and his first Percy book had just come out, he was a guest author at the hoity toity private school where I worked. Since I taught English and all I was given the task of picking some of our better writers to have pizza with him. They were nervous, so I had to ask the questions that got the ball rollin'. After that we ended up talking about how he got where he is with his writing (he started out writing adult quasi-detective novels) and how he ended up with the Percy concept (he wrote it for his son who was struggling learning Greek mythology at school). He was a former English teacher at a middle school who wrote on the side. He was a really nice guy, even behind the closed doors of the teacher's lounge, and it can get pretty catty in there!
greg
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