About a month ago, I got this email in my school inbox:
Hello Second and Third Grade Teachers,
Are you ready to be WOWed? Your two grade levels will be the first this year to see an author presentation. And what a presentation it will be! You will get not one, not two, but three speakers in one visit.
Get ready to welcome the award-winning writing team of Shannon and Dean Hale and illustrator LeUyen Pham. They are the Princess in Black Team and are the creators of the New York Times best-selling humorous and action-packed chapter-book series for young readers who like their princesses not only prim and perfect, but also dressed in black.
When I read this email I literally squealed. I LOVE Shannon Hale. One of my favorite books is The Goose Girl! I also really enjoyed Austenland, Book of a Thousand Days, and The Actor and the Housewife. Basically I just think she’s fabulous and I really need to read some of her and her husband’s children’s books because they look really cute!
Their presentation was very cute. Shannon actually started out her presentation in a similar way I have – talking about how she grew up making up stories and creating little books. Her husband talked about how he joined her writing team and how their kids were involved. LeUyen Pham was adorable and very engaging for the kids. She talked about how she became an illustrator because she grew up drawing all day. She even drew a monster for us and then drew chewbacca next to one of the teachers made to look like Princess Leia.
Unfortunately I missed a lot of the presentation. The reason for this is, like a total nerd, I brought a copy of one of my Shannon Hale books with me to school to see if she would sign it. I felt kind of stupid about it though, so I left it in my classroom. During the presentation I kept thinking, “She’s literally right there! When else will I have this opportunity?” One of the angel teachers at our school understood my distress and said she’d watch my kids if I wanted to go get my book from my classroom. When it was over, she kept an eye on them while I ran up to her (feeling very awkward and silly) and asked her if she would sign my book. She said she would and asked my name. I told her, “Anni – A-N-N-I.” She kind of looked at me funny and I figured it was because she just thought I was awkward. But then I read her inscription:
If you haven’t read the book and have no idea what that means, Ani is the main character in the story 🙂 I’m not gonna lie, I was totally starstruck and I had to kind of sit and process and post this out to social media for like an hour after school got out before I actually got back to work. I mean, it was kind of awesome.
I am so lucky to have met one of my favorite authors! I’m also very glad that the teacher next to me at the assembly nudged me to have her sign my book. All in all, it was a fun day for bookworm Anni. Author Anni hopes that someday she can inspire others as much as Shannon Hale inspires me.
I love this so much! And I love that she wrote “Listen to the wind” Since your nickname from Wade was Princess of the Wind. You are one lucky and talented lady. 🙂