Audience Participation

February and March! So busy! Thanks to events like World Read Aloud Day and Read Across America, every school wants kids’ book visitors in those same two months, and at practically no other times.

This year I was reminded once again that if I talk to enough kids in the same day, a probabilistic curve stretches exponentially toward infinity that the following will happen:

Recently I did a school visit and a kindergartner asked, “Who makes the words and pictures?” and friends, I cannot stress enough how clear I had been on both these points.

I think sometimes the kids are told beforehand to think of a question to ask me, and they’ll be damned if they are not going to ask their question. Of course, with some kids it could easily be that they’ve spent the preceding 45 minutes singing commercial jingles to themselves in their heads and didn’t hear anything I said, who knows!

Anyway, these visits are always fun, and sometimes they’re amazing. I read DIGESTION: The Musical! to a Pre-K and Kindergarten group a few days ago and we bonded so hard it was like the last day of Summer Camp when I left. I’m pretty sure we’re all going to keep in touch.

March is also the month of the Tucson Festival of Books. Here’s a photo I took of Curious George, Elephant, Piggie, and Ladybug Girl relaxing after a long afternoon of giving floppy hi-fives and being hugged by strangers.

Photos courtesy of Dan Yaccarino

Every year at the festival I host the Illustrator Draw-off, in which I force visiting illustrators to draw my suggestions, and the suggestions of the audience. My fantastic participants this year were, from left to right, AG Ford, Molly Idle, Juana Martinez-Neal, Balint Zsako, and Dan Yaccarino.

I probably had my eyes closed because I was reminiscing about something nice.

If somehow you’re thinking, “I wish I could be in an Adam Rex audience. I wish I were a Kindergartner listening quietly while he talks for an hour,” then boy, do I have an opportunity for you, and also a lot of questions.

This Thursday, March 16th, from 7:00 - 8:30 ET, I’ll be delivering a webinar with The Kidlit Hive about writing humor. Follow that link to sign up. Here’s a graphic they made for it:

It’s described this way: “What is humor? How does it even work? Adam Rex shares how he thinks—and overthinks—about humor, and the elements that undergird a funny picture book.”

I’m pretty sure I wrote that description for them, which means I’m the one who chose the word “undergird.” My dictionary, which I probably should have consulted before sending them this description, says undergird means, “secure or fasten from the underside, especially by a rope or chain passed underneath.” So.

Once again, here are the last three files I opened in Photoshop, presented without context:

Best Wishes,

Adam