I’ve been looking forward to this post for a long time. We got to read the Pink Me review of our book, Stonewall Hinkleman, back when the Pink-Haired Librarian first read the ARC. Now at last, the review has been posted on the Pink Me blog. Yahoo!

What I love about the review is that the Pink-Haired Librarian, like our hero Stonewall, doesn’t like the Civil War. And, also like our heroine, she expresses that feeling quite clearly…

 I’m a full-on adult – a librarian, a photo archivist, a reader – who has never given a rat’s rosy rumpus about the American Civil War. It’s embarrassing but true.

Which is why Stonewall Hinkleman and the Battle of Bull Run has me SO IMPRESSED.

And here’s the quote I wish was on the cover:

Stonewall Hinkleman humanizes the Civil War like nothing I’ve ever read.

Today was a freebie visit to a local school for some sort of reading week they were having. On my way there i realized I didn’t have my stuff and had to zoom back home and the back to town and just barely made it. Nobody there seemed to know who I was …  in fact they had a couple of books (not mine) picked out for me to read to the kids. The kids hadn’t been prepared for my visit by reading my book or even learning about it. I was basically a complete non-entity who suddenly appeared in their classroom.

Recipe for disaster? No way. It was a blast! Great kids and unusually enthusiastic teachers! (No teacher fell asleep this time!)

It was my first time reading to kids from “Stonewall Hinkleman and the Battle of Bull Run.” I think they liked it. I focused on his being a 21st-century kid/whiner and then his sudden appearance in the middle of the real battle.

 As for Qwikpick … it turned out that these kids had taken a field trip to the VERY SAME wastewater treatment plant that Lyle, Dave and Marilla visit. (However, their visit was post-Poop Fountain.)

I’ve said it before, but I may as well repeat it. There are few rewards for being a kidlit author, in fact their are many punishments – rejections, waits, slow book signings, etc…

But a good school visit can put you on top of the world!