Chicago Trip

Today I travel to Chicago for a half dozen fun events. First up, a workshop and signings at the International Reading Association Annual Convention. My editor, Andy Boyles, and my friend, Julie, a school librarian, will help me present a workshop titled “Seeing is Believing: Photography in Nonfiction,” which we designed to share strategies for using photography to teach reading and writing. My blog followers will recognize some of the activities we’ve done to prepare for this workshop. I will sign copies of Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature on Monday from 2 p.m. to 2:40 p.m. and on Tuesday from 11 a.m. until noon. In addition, we’ll share a meal with the good folks at the Highlights Foundation, including Kent Brown. I am looking forward to meeting Mary Alice Moore, our new lead editor at Boyds Mills Press.

On Wednesday, I’ll go a little further north to Evanston, my old stomping grounds from age 0-7 and college days at Northwestern. There, I’m doing a family event at the Evanston Public Library at 7 p.m. Wednesday, a school visit at Martin Luther King Jr. Laboratory Magnet School, a talk at Northwestern’s Office of Fellowships, a dinner with Residential College Board members and faculty advisers, and a fireside at the Communications Residential College.

I’ll also spend some time with friends who have known me since I was born, my godparents and the circle of friends that surrounded my parents when they were young parents. And, I’m having a dinner/slumber party with my college roommate, who lives in the greater Chicago area. I will do my best to report from the road, but I expect to be wildly busy. You may have to make do with pictures until I return.