I’m realizing now why social media consultant and marketing positions are actually needed for companies and organizations. Right now, it’s 10:30pm, I’ve been visiting with a friend in Janesville, Wisconsin who I haven’t seen in forever and wishing she would move back to Seattle, and I’d love nothing more than to crawl onto my comfy air mattress, continue reading Delirium by Lauren Oliver (great teen to adult read FYI), and fall into a delightful sleep. But I know that if I don’t write this blog post now, I might never. My brother recently read a book called Willpower and one of the recommendations is to set aside time to do whatever task you need willpower to do and either literally do nothing (like twiddle your thumbs nothing) or do that thing. I haven’t gotten to that point yet (um, because I would need to lose sleep to do it), but I totally get it.

Enough of me being tired and lazy. Let’s talk about how I got to hang out with *almost* my entire family this weekend (sadly, minus my fiancee)–no mean feat as my brother lives in NYC/Cleveland, my dad lives in NYC/Orlando (with my mom normally, when I haven’t absconded with her on a crazy-fun road trip), and my sister lives in St. Paul. So much fun! It didn’t hurt that the weekend was the most gorgeous Minnesota weekend. Crisp fall weather, blue skies, leaves changing color–YES. Good karma is working for us because we have not had a single bad weather day yet (please do not let this statement jinx me).

But wait, this blog is not about talking about writing blogs, willpower, or my family, ha. Let me get to what you probably really want to hear about: literacy adventures! Yesterday, we got to present a bilingual program after a Spanish Mass at the Catholic Church in Northfield, MN where Carleton College is located–the alma mater for both my mom and me! (And in fact, my dad, brother, and sister as well). We were targeting the Latino community in Northfield and had a great turnout. Kids were engaged, plus we got to give away about 30 books. My only regret is that I had not had more foresight (or more time to take care of all the marketing/social networking, or to at least delegate the marketing) to connect the event better with the Carleton community. There is a great story there, especially since my whole family went to Carleton, but I still need to work on that aspect. Next year!

This morning, we went to Bancroft Elementary School and met with 4 first-grade classes and 3 fourth-grade classes. The really fantastic things about doing the same schtick many times in many different schools is (a) we keep perfecting our routine, and (b) the students and teachers are what really make the event successful. Today, one of our favorite moments was when we were telling students about the Literacy Lab and our journal and then got to the part where we told them that they would each get a book to take home. When we said that they could keep them forever, one first-grader’s eyes lit up. “Forever??” he repeated. I wish we had caught it on videotape because that is what we are about. The other moment from this day that I’ll mention is a return to one of my earlier blog posts about judging books by their cover. In one of the fourth-grade classes, when it came time to give out books, there was one student who wanted a particular book (specifically, a book about football that his friend had picked out). We showed him all of the books we brought with us, including other sports books or other action books, but he was bummed and really only wanted this particular book. Finally, at the end when we were packing up and he hadn’t picked out a book and went back to his desk rather glumly, my mom found an exciting easy reader about Indiana Jones and asked if she could just leave it on his desk. He kind of perked up and didn’t refuse, which was a huge step up from 5 minutes previously when he just wouldn’t take a book. And it reminded me of a few things: (a) that is the type of kid who we really want to reach, (b) those type of kids are the hardest to reach. So much is written about reluctant readers, and I saw it reflected right there. What surprises me every time about students picking out books is that it’s not always about the flashy cover. Those certainly help, and we need more of those, particularly the high-interest, low-level ones but it’s also about variety. Sometimes students pick the books that look the most ratty or out-of-date to my mom and me over the brand-new-looking book sitting right beside it. So far, our book collection process has been to look for relatively new-looking (gently used is the term I like) books that cover a wide variety, which seems to work pretty well. There are still ways to perfect it, though, which is what we haven’t quite gotten to.

Phew, this blog post ended up being way longer than I intended, with not  even any pictures! I forgot to get the camera out of the car, so I will have to upload some pictures tomorrow. Thanks to those of you who stuck out to the end of this post. Tomorrow or the next day, I’m also hoping to upload some photos to our facebook page. Keep an eye out!