This is Emma. Emma is holding down the fort while I fly to D.C. and work at Mantua Elementary School on Thursday. She will answer all correspondence while I'm gone, even though she has a limited vocabulary... she'll still do a better job at correspondence than I do. And since she lives just across the street, she won't have far to go to answer my phone, which she'll do better than I do, since I rarely hear or answer my own phone.
Emma is the recipient of many of the books I gathered from independent booksellers on the AURORA COUNTY ALL-STARS book tour in September. It has been so much fun to watch her eyes swallow a book -- you know what I mean... that wide-eyed "is it for me?" look, that look of wonder, "what IS it?" and that delight in discovery -- colors! words! pages! STORY! "Again!" Emma is already an avid reader -- she reads cover-to-cover in her own way -- because her mom, Elizabeth, reads to her.
I hired Emma both for her sense of wonder and because of her special skills. She is especially skilled at petting cats (look at Cleebo discovering snow last week!) and digging in the dirt, so if you need any cats petted or dirt dug, call Emma while I'm gone. She is also very good at overseeing construction (new driveway... look at that red Georgia clay!).
I'm teaching personal narrative writing to fourth graders at Mantua tomorrow. I've brought my notebooks, my stories, and my work in progress. I've got a new hat! I've brought a tangerine, a banana, a red pear, homemade granola, and a carrot-raisin muffin with peanut butter. (WW last Friday: -14.6 pounds so far.)And I've got 150 fourth graders. With notebooks. All day tomorrow. I can't wait. I'll chronicle it all right here, so hang on, as I send updates. To Emma.
