Taking a Book Break

In the Alphabet Forest yesterday, I kept my camera with me in case I needed to capture a moment in literacy. Not surprising, it was out of its case most of the day! I lost count of the children and parents taking a book break under the shady trees. Debra would glimpse a child and whisper to me, "Look at that lovely child in the __ shirt. Did you get that one?" I did. Amid the general crowd noise, the music of the afternoon parade, and the spinning of the alphabet wheel, readers were quietly engrossed in books. Magical. It affirmed all the reasons we have worked so hard to bring the Alphabet Forest to life at the State Fair.

On another note...one family (all wearing yellow shirts to keep themselves together and visible to one another) spent about TWO HOURS in the Alphabet Forest. The grandma, moms, and daughters took great photos with the large alphabet letters, they read books, they made mini-banners, they wrote letters to someone else at Debra Frasier's author table, they bought books and had them signed, and they won blue ribbons for completing the vocabulary game card. Both moms asked to write comments on the Alphabet Forest's guest clipboard.