I spent an hour today reading my last novel THE AQUANAUTS with Tio's class this morning. I've done class visits all over the continent and taught creative writing to this age kid quite a bit through the past decade but this is the first time a lot of the faces in the room were familiar to me. I see them on the ice rink, at the rec center, playing baseball, and at the library. Last week one boy shouted across the ice "Hey Tio's grandfather. Will you be reading to our class?"
Tio was particularly pleased that I was there. He called me "Jean" the whole time and confided that everyone would want to hear about my burned hand. On my way out he flashed our secret hand signal that we invented for our bike club with Kit and haven't used in a while. I signaled the response and heard some other boys muttering in awe that we had some secret code language.
I haven't done class readings in a couple of years and forget how thirsty the kids are for this kind of input. I've never had a class be disruptive or rude, never felt they didn't care and always get lots of questions. I guess I should get out there more. It might inspire me to get this next book finished!
