I’ve mentioned (many times to anyone who’s been near me in person lately) that Kate DiCamillo signed a copy of The Tale of Despereaux at BEA09 for my students and me. I decided it would be great to have the kids write letters to Ms. DiCamillo telling her their favorite part of the book.

My kids, a class of 2nd graders taught by my favorite teacher on earth (Mrs. Day), were over the moon about it. I had a really great talk with Mrs. Day about reinforcing literacy, making them excited about books, and making the connections between the things they read and the people who write them. So she graciously gave up some class time to work on the letters, and I came to their class so they could all see the autograph. They letters are fantastic; here’s a picture of the kids in the library, holding up their letters. I’ll be sending these off this week. It was a great project.