I spied at a 2 year old birthday party: Crayons quitting, strong girls inventing and dragons eating (with little trees in her future)

I took a break last night from Bat Mitzvah planning and went to a two year old birthday party.  And since I was in the mood for breaks, this was the first occasion I didn't give my young friend books as a gift.  BUT, fortunately, she managed to get a nice stack of hard cover books to add to her collection from someone else.

The popular The Day the Crayons Quit and The Day the Crayons Came Home were two of them.  Then, Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin.  That book is so fun!  A few years ago the author and illustrator, Daniel Salmieri, were at the Hudson Book Festival.  This was before the book made it to the NYT Best Sellers list week after week.  They were just a couple of cool 20 something guys having fun signing their books.  So, we're at this little get together last night and one woman (not the one who gave the books), said Adam is her cousin.  She even went to his Bar Mitzvah!  Yes! I have these life events on my mind right now.  I don't know if anyone else was impressed.  But you know I was.

The final book in the birthday pile was another one I have in my school collection, Rosie Revere: Engineer by Andrea Beaty and illustrated by David Roberts.  A great book to encourage our little friend in becoming a strong, confident girl.  I don't know if I would have ever thought to give that as a gift, but now I certainly will.  Ahhh....I feel a pun coming--Great IDEA! (yes, Rosie likes to invent things!).

I loved meeting Loren Long at ALA and am waiting patiently for The Little Tree to come out at the end of the month (October 27).  We went to an event where Loren spoke about his journey in coming up with the idea of the book.  It was so moving.  A lot of sniffling was heard in the crowd.  I wonder, as my daughter approaches a new stage in her life next weekend, if I should give the book another read this week, and how I might look at it differently.  We always want to hold on to our leaves but sometimes, we just have to give ourselves permission to let go.  I really love this book so much and can't wait till the rest of the world can get their hands on it. (Oh, and did you know I got Loren to jump with me right before the Newbery Caldecott banquet?!)

PRE JUMP with Mary Ann Scheuer!

Coming down?

I just LOVE that little tree!

Loren signed a copy to one of my classroom teacher friends and she read it to her daughter's kindergarten class last week when she went in as a guest reader.  She was so excited to share her book with the class.

Mrs. DeMassio happily posing with her copy!

How does this relate to the birthday party you ask?  Well, over the summer I gave my little birthday girlfriend a couple of books and a board book of Otis was one of them.

Ok...taking a break was the theme for a few hours on Saturday. Well, the break is way over.  Now back to the grind.