The Most Fabulous Henry Cole

We had such a great day with Henry Cole, children's book author and illustrator.  He was simply amazing, entertaining three HUGE student audiences throughout the day.  He kept the 2-5 graders for over an hour, and they never took their eyes off him.  I WISH I could hold their attention like that.  Wow.  And although Henry has his presentation down pat, each time I heard it, it was as if he was telling his stories for the first time.  Students and teachers were all impressed. 
We sold lots of his books to everyone at the school, and Henry signed like a trooper for hours and hours. 
Henry and I got to talk about books, and authors, and illustrators, and industry gossip, which was just so much fun.  He told me about how much he loves Mouse Was Mad, which I had written about several months ago.  I learned that the cover was originally not supposed to be the color it is, but when an original got copied, the green color changed a bit and everyone loved the new color.  I was so glad to hear that Henry loves that book, because I love it too. (And I love Linda Urban.  For many reasons.)
Henry loved the things that I've been doing while reading his book to the kids, and that made me feel good.  The kids were so into it.  So into his book, and now so into him!!  What I love so much about his book, A Nest for Celeste, is how it made me more interested in history.  I had to find out about the passenger pigeons.  And then I had to find out more about John James Audubon.  That's one of my favorite things about being a librarian--that constant quest for information. 

What a great day!