Librarians, writers, and readers take heart!

I was just in my niece Jessica Sprague's fifth grade class helping the kids figure out how to write non-fiction. Jessica is using Lucy Calkins' amazing books. Really interesting way of helping students sort through a bunch of ideas about their lives and focus on one to write about.

I wasn't there entirely altruistically -- in the novel I'm working on, my main character has just finished fifth grade, but seems to be slipping into a younger age, so I thought I better hang with some fifth graders.

Brainstorming with one of the girls, I asked her what she liked to do after school. What really made her eyes light up: playing librarian with her friend and "dealing with all the cranky customers."

So, hang on! We're got budding librarians-to-be in the works, and they know what they are getting into!