Fifteen Seconds With Fame

Andy and I have been reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. There are five total and we are on the fourth book. They are fabulous books. I have been reading them to him before bed. Not that he can't read them himself, because he is an excellent reader, but the vocabulary is pretty big and he really enjoys when I read to him. I think it lets him concentrate on building a picture in his mind instead of focusing on the words.

About two weeks ago my friend told me that the author, Rick Riordan, was coming to our local Barnes and Noble to do a book signing. I was so excited to take Andy, because he loves the books and recently wrote something in his homework about Riordan being his favorite author. We had to get wrist bands on Monday morning for the Thursday signing, and I had an appointment with the kids so had to have a friend get them for me. Then Andy had a baseball game at the same time the signing started. I cheered extra hard at the game so one team would mercy the other and we could get out of there and to the signing faster. Amazingly it worked.

By the time we got to the book store they were already through the wrist bands and working the line of people who weren't able to get wrist bands. Unfortunately our unused wrist bands didn't get us any clout and we had to wait at the end of the line. We waited for about 30-40 minutes. I also brought one of Andy's friends and they were great. They waited very patiently and didn't whine or complain at all.

When we finally got to the front of the line and it was our turn, the encounter lasted all of 15 seconds. He signed our books, asked Andy if he had had a baseball game (he was still in his uniform) and then we were on our way. I had warned Andy this might be the case, so he quickly got in "I have all of your books and we are on the fourth one and they are AWESOME!". Despite the quick encounter, both boys were very excited about the whole experience.

We went to another book signing three days later for a man who lives in our town and his daughter goes to Sarah's preschool. There was no line, no wait, and he talked to us for about five minutes. We could have talked to him longer except that we hadn't read the book yet and did have much more to talk about. Nonetheless, it was cool. Just an average, local guy, writing a book. April, you could do that.

Both experiences were cool in their own way. What I liked best, however, was that my seven-year-old son was even interested in going to a book signing and meeting an author. He likes book and reading so much that he wants to see the people who put the words down on paper and that he admires them. That makes it all worth it.