authors

This day was going to be full. Not overly crazy, but full. And then the rain started moving in to the area. My daughter's soccer game was cancelled, so everyone started getting ready to go to the other one. And then my son's out of town soccer game was cancelled too. I took them both outside for about 15 minutes to kick some goals before the rain started. Our full day shifted.

Because we were now free, we headed to a book signing. My friends wrote a book to help pay hospital expenses for their son, who has spina bfida. Ashley (at the table below) has a wonderful blog, if you would like to read more about their journey--and see pictures of their adorable little boy Finn. Want to buy a copy of their book? You can get those here.

After lunch, we headed to Drawn Together, a benefit hosted by our local library systems to benefit school libraries in Moore. Jeff Kinney, author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books called on three of his friends to help him raise money for Moore by sharing about their careers as cartoonists and writers.

So we got to hear from

Dav Pilkey

Lincoln Peirce

Jeff Kinney

and Stephen Pastis

They ended with a short question and answer session. My son loves cartooning and was able to get a few early birthday presents (a couple of signed books and a poster). All of the artists shared a bit about their process, as well as some previews of upcoming books. Isaac enjoyed hearing the guys talk. It is good just to see the guys behind these books, to help him see they are just normal (but very creative) guys. It was also good for him to hear from one of the guys that writing skills are just as important as drawing skills. A cartoonist must be able to tell a story with words and with the pictures. I also liked that these are guy authors writing for boys, a hard audience to reach, especially in the upper elementary grades. So many guys stop reading then. These books keep them reading.

Then we rushed home to watch OU beat Notre Dame. So it was a good day all around!