Brief Author's Day Report

Author's Day—featuring the wonderful, ponytailed Jorge Argueta—required (on my part) the frenzied bundling of pencils and bookmarks and the tedious organizing of the large book order (I attached a post-it note with the name of each child and teacher, so as to facilitate the book signing), but was well worth it when 1) Sr. Argueta began his talk to the Kindergarten-2nd grade in SPANISH and was greeted with a sort of gasp and then much excited twittering and 2) he held up his book, Trees Are Hanging From the Sky / Los Arboles Estan Colgando del Cielo, a series of poems that showcase his love for his homeland of El Salvador and said, "In this book words, words, nothing but words took me home..."

And I just thought that was lovely. Here are some of Lea's classmates closing their eyes and imagining something hanging from the sky. Best answer of the morning? "Pickles!"


His books for children—some are stories, some are collections of poems—are not only beautifully written, they are beautifully illustrated, bilingual and just good, solid additions to any kid's library. I was happy to find that our school librarian had ordered five or six for the school shelves, which means that they'll be readily available for the students who weren't able to purchase them. Click here for the full line-up.