A literary life can be a wonderful life, richly textured, colorful and full of adventure. This week ours has certainly proven to be just that. Over a month ago, I learned of a trilogy of books called The Jaguar Stones Trilogy by J & P Voelkel, an adventure tale that takes readers on a journey through Mayan underworld. I found my way to their website and read a bit about the books. At some point, I ordered the first two books in the series for Super A and I began following Jaguar Stones on Twitter and exchanging tweets with co-author, Pamela Voelkel. I also ordered signed bookplates and bookmarks for the boys’ books. When Pamela saw our location, she thought it might be close to a stop on their book tour in a few weeks. She was kind enough to bring that to my attention because, as it turned out, they were coming to one of our favorite indie bookshops, Watchung Booksellers. On Friday, March 4th, we had the opportunity to share an hour with them. It was amazing.
Super A sat amongst a room filled with kids at Watchung Booksellers, mostly boys, holding onto their copies of the book(s) and listening intently as Jon and Pamela Voelkel told them tales of their personal journeys and how the stories came to be. It did my heart good. I can’t remember when I met my first author or went to my first book signing, but I was much older than eight. Dare I say, I was an adult. The children were captivated. I cannot imagine how experiences, such as sitting in such a great place with other children, surrounded by wonderful books, real life adventure stories and amazing, personable writers, would not lend themselves to fostering a lifelong love of reading and learning.
Super A and his dad have started to read Middleworld. It is a richly detailed story that is just a tad beyond his years in reading level, but the history, culture, and adventure have him intrigued. Reading such a book aloud to a child gives them the opportunity to grapple with stories that are a bit beyond their individual reach, but accessible when sharing the reading journey with a more advanced reader.
He was absolutely delighted to meet the writers and share in their infectious excitement about their topic. We even got a chance to try fried meal worms. I’m still trying to get over the fact that I knowingly ate a worm, but Super A thought it was the best thing in the world to actually eat a creepy crawler. Even my husband seemed a bit excited. Maybe it’s a guy thing.
However, the absolute highlight of Super A’s day though was getting the opportunity to try on the Mayan headdress.
I am thrilled that we had the opportunity to experience this day in our reading life. It was such a pleasure to meet Jon and Pamela Voelkel, and it is certainly a day that we will treasure.
As I continue my efforts as a literacy advocate, I think it is important to balance the research and harsh realities with the real life joys of our literary life. It takes us to wonderful, amazing places.
