Short entry because my ride is picking me up at 6:15 tomorrow and I’m beat.
Had sooo much fun with the students at West.
Best audience I’ve had in a long time.
This whole week has been wonderful, but to be honest, my eyes are not focussing right now. Feels like one of those nights when I’m going to fall asleep with my face on the keyboard.
One last photo before I go.
Both of these signs – on the piano – warn the world not to put anything on the piano.
I was amused.
Life continues swimmingly here in Appleton, Wisconsin. More hanging out with great kids and librarians (and very cool principals which is always a welcome surprise). More conversations about books and life and teens and culture and what is important. I took the Best Nap of the Century during my break and woke up feeling ready to take on the world.
Here are some things that amuse/intrigue me about this part of the country:
Human-scale living: most of the buildings downtown are only two or three stories tall. People smile at each other. Are these facts connected?
Great town names; stuff you say over and over again like incantations: Oshkosh, Neenah, Kaukauna, Menasha.
Extremely good hot wings served in the restaurant at my hotel.
Harry Houdini grew up here. (I have a bizarre fascination with him. Someone remind me to riff on that in a couple weeks.)
So did Edna Ferber.
They make paper here. Not so good for rivers. Very good for authors and readers.
The slightly Scandinavian accent around “o” vowels as pronounced by people who have lived here their whole lives.
Favorite image du jour. This is the popcorn machine that magically appears in the Madison Middle School staff room every Wednesday (Hump Day) to give teachers the extra boost they need to get through the rest of the week. I want a machine like this to magically appear at my apartment every Wednesday!!! It made Very Good popcorn. (Yes, I whined until they gave me some.)
Here are the some of the folks who came out to the Appleton Public Library tonight. Thanks!
Thursday morning at 9:15 I’ll be speaking at the Neenah Public Library. The rest of the day I’ll be at Appleton West High School. Tomorrow night from 7-8:45 pm I’ll be back at the Neenah Public Library. Friday I head to New London (not too far from here) and on Friday night – if the weather cooperates – I head back to PA.
Now I have a better fix on what they’ve been doing here.
WOW.
The community of Appleton, WI has set the gold standard for a “one book, one community” program. As I learn more and more about it, I am absolutely flabbergasted. They took SPEAK and decided that they wanted everybody to read it. Everybody. The program was spearheaded by the library (of course!). They got the Mayor on board, the police department, the schools, the education foundation. Book clubs read the book. Senior citizens in nursing homes read the book. Countless teens and parents read it. People talked about it in church groups. In car pools. Over coffee. Tee-shirts and lawn signs (lawn signs!) were made promoting the project. Everyone wore buttons. There was a billboard. Strangers talked to each other about it in grocery stores and in lines at the bank.
Is this just about the coolest thing that has happened to me? Yep, you betcha.
But this is way, way, way larger than SPEAK. To me, the real significance of all of this is that in America, in 2005, a Mid-Western community came together – all ages, all facets of society – to talk about a contemporary YA story. I think this is so, so, so amazing.
*pauses for stunned contemplation*
My role here is a minor one, but I’m having a blast. Visited Einstein Middle School this morning
and Appleton East High School this afternoon. These are random East students, dressed sort of… I wasn’t quite sure what they were dressed as… but they looked good. All the kids there were fun.
Tomorrow is set up the same way: Little Chute and Madison Middle Schools in the day, another community presentation at the Appleton Public Library at 7pm.
*goes back to Awe of Appleton*
Just imagine what the world would be like if people in all communities talked about books all the time….
So why am I here? Because the good people of Appleton, WI turned SPEAK into a community project. *blush* This morning I am speaking at Einstein Middle School, this afternoon I’ll be at Appleton East High School. I’m giving a public presentation tonight at the Appleton Public Library from 7 – 8:45 pm.
Yesterday was a long day. It took 11 hours to get from my apartment in PA to the hotel here, but that’s because I had a wicked long layover in Minneapolis. If you have to have a layover, that’s the place to do it. It is fairly peaceful (as airports go) and has a very nice bookstore if you “happen” to finish reading all of the books in your backpack. Stuck in an airport and forced to buy a book. Tough life.
The best quote of the day came from one of the Northwest Air stewards. At the beginning of our flight from Philly, it was announced that meals were available for purchase. The two guys on the other side of the aisle were excited about this – they were hungry. So the steward comes through the cabin, offering his goodies for sale. The “meal” cost $3.50. It contained some cookies, crackers and artificial processed cheese food, and a stick of beef product and chemicals.
“Where’s the meal?” asked the hungry flyers.
“This is it,” answered the steward, with a sigh.
“But we want sandwiches.”
“To get sandwiches you have to fly to Hawaii.” (that’s the best quote IMHO).
The guys bought the snack box. Good thing they did because when the free soda came around, it was not accompanied by itty-bitty bags of pretzels or nuts. I would like to point out (in defense of Northwest Air) that we were not charged for napkins. And while the seat had the comfort level of a wooden bench, the landing was incredibly smooth, and I give out lots of bonus points for that.
Time to go. More sights and sounds of Appleton later.
The weekend went way too fast. It was beautiful up North. The snow is finally gone and trees are just getting ready to explode. I planted some pansies and attacked a small corner of the yard with a rake. BH grilled steak and we enjoyed great sunrises and sunsets. I read a lot, too (oh joy, oh bliss!!) – Wicked by Gregory McGuire.
I left yesterday morning and drove down to Moravian to hang out with Stef and her friends. They made me a cake to celebrate PROM on the NYTimes list. It had bookworms on it *grin*. Got back to Horsham in time to pick up Mer, from her Ohio band trip. They wound up in 15th place out of 40 bands which is very respectable. It was sad to watch the last of them milling around the parking lot…. sad, because band is over for the seniors. It’s the beginning of a long list of “lasts” for a group of kids who really loved high school. (Yes, there are such people. They are rare, but they do exist.)
Time is a particularly painful thing for middle-aged moms and high school seniors. I should stock up on Kleenex.
I need to pack the dreaded suitcase again. Today’s trip takes me to Appleton, Wisconsin. More details later.