Truck Stuck Back on the Road

I am back from three weeks of travel. Two weeks were “Vacation”, spent in Spain, touring with my niece and her high school Spanish class. The third week included two author events for Truck Stuck, one in New York City and the other in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I’m doing my best to get national exposure for this book, if not international exposure.

The event in New York City was at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, CMOM, arranged by the publicity department of Charlesbridge. I was the featured author at a Circle Time, a regular part of the schedule at the Playworks exhibit for the youngest children (birth to 4 years old.) Although I was really pleased to be scheduled to read at CMOM, there were some unusual circumstances and communications. My event was scheduled somewhat at the last minute and therefore the bookstore did not have my book in stock. Also, I was told by my publicist at Charlesbridge that she had received an email suggesting that the number of children attending would be too large to accommodate interactive games and activities. It was suggested that I merely read my two truck books (Peter’s Trucks and Truck stuck) and speak to the group. Therefore I did not bring my suitcase full of trucks.



I only brought the big blue truck, the shoebox viaduct (which is falling apart from heavy use), and as a last minute addition, 3 trucks that I bought at a souvenir store on Broadway. Also my backpack. But when I arrived at the Children’s Museum I was told that of course this should be very interactive and it was too bad I had not brought all my trucks.

I chatted with the staff of CMOM and we decided to let the children help me unpack the backpack as a way of making my presentation more interactive.


Exploring the contents of my backpack.

The reading went fine, although I am learning that the contents of my backpack has more meaning for older children. I found these very young children a little reticent—they did not respond to my questions about what was happening on the pages of the books. Everyone sat quietly in his or her care-giver’s lap, and several children were drifting off into naps. There were other children who chose to continue to play at the various exhibits and not join circle time, so the noise level was a bit challenging.

Next time—and I hope there will be a next time, because this is a very fun location—I will know to bring my suitcase full of trucks. But the most important thing I learned is that I should be sure and speak with the contact person at each event and not leave all the communication up to my publicist at Charlesbridge. As I look back on the different events I have had so far I see that the more I took charge of communications, the better prepared I was. Charlesbridge has been great about setting up dates for these events, but it is important for me to follow up and make personal contact as well, before the event.

Three days later I was in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with my husband and two boys (Lou, age 29, and Pete, age 26), visiting Chuck’s parents and his sisters’ family for Passover. Hilde, my mother-in-law, had arranged for me to do a reading at the Sioux Falls Barnes & Noble at their regularly scheduled Friday night story hour. Although Hilde had arranged for the date and time, I had taken the initiative to talk to the Community Relations Manager myself, as well as asking Taylor Rogers, at Charlesbridge to send publicity materials and press releases while I was in Spain.

In my phone call with Shelie, the B&N CRM, we decided that I would be in charge of the whole story hour and read Truck Stuck, bring my trucks, have the “balloon” parade, lemonade, and coloring sheets—the whole nine yards. Shelie could not be there that evening, but had left clear instructions for Scott, who oversaw the event, and everything was in order—Shelie had provided crayons, coloring sheets from the materials Charlesbridge provided, and neon blue and pink plastic plates for the “balloon” parade. The café at B&N had been alerted to serve lemonade at the end of the parade.


Barnes & Noble was well-prepared.

I was pretty nervous about this event even though I knew I was really well-prepared. My husband’s entire family was coming, plus friends of my mother-in-law. My husband, my boys—none of my family has ever been to one of these events. At first it seemed as if the family and adults were the main audience, but soon the benches filled with kids ranging in age from about 2 to 9 or 10, mostly younger, a good mix of boys and girls. As I began to share the contents of my backpack, there were lots of questions. “Do you write with a special pen?” Yes I do, I use a fountain pen. “How do you get the colors in your journal?” I pulled out my box of paints. “My mother has paints like those.” They were impressed when I pulled out Bel Canto, the little toy horse that I carry with me when I’m traveling. She is a toy from when I was about 9, making her almost 50 years old. (link to the little horse blog) One little girl raised her hand. “I have two horses,” she said.

I started to read Truck Stuck. The kids were very responsive as I asked them what was going on with the lemonade stand. As I began to read the text one boy asked “What’s an exterminator?” (one of the trucks mentioned in the book.) I explained that if you have bugs in your house the exterminator will make them go away. The little girl with the two (toy) horses raised her hand again. “My grandmother has lots of bugs in her house.” What can you say to that? I suggested that she call the exterminator to get rid of them. I love that girl. I wondered if her grandmother was in the audience.


My sister-in-law joked that I was a Goth children's author in this outfit.


These kids were great, enjoying the story, the pictures, and all the trucks. The balloon parade got off to a slow start, but then everyone joined in, even my family. I suggested we sing (to the tune of “The wheels on the bus”)—“The wheels on the truck are stuck, stuck, stuck. Stuck, stuck, stuck. Stuck, stuck, stuck. The wheels on the truck are stuck, stuck, stuck, Under the viaduct.” We made up several verses and marched through the stacks of children’s books, then returned to the benches to enjoy lemonade, color and play with the trucks. The trucks were the hit of the evening. I signed books and we got a photo taken of the entire Wolf family. I’m not sure we’ve ever been able to get everyone in one photo before.

All in all, it was a great event. I had fun and my family got to see me in action, and the kids were really responsive and engaged in the activities. I must be learning something.

Fourth Time's the Charm

On March 11 I had my fourth Book Store Event—morning story hour at the Naperville Barnes & Noble. Once again I alerted the SCBWI list serve to the event and asked my few Naperville area friends to show up. This time the turn-out was quite good—6 or 7 bodies from my efforts, but maybe another 15 or 20 from the store’s regular story time crowd. Even before I was due to read children were gathering on little wooden benches in front of the chair where I would be reading. I had brought my suitcase full of trucks, my backpack that I carry everywhere, and my purse. You would have thought I was going to move in.

I didn’t want the children who were sitting so patiently to get bored, but it was early to begin the reading so I began to chat with them. I put my backpack on my back and told them that my guardian spirit is the turtle, who carries its home on its back. Then I took off my pack and began to show them all the things I carry with me: a book to read, so I always have something to do; my journal, so I can always write and draw; a set of watercolor paints, in case I want to paint. “Can we paint?” asked one of the kids? “I have coloring sheets and crayons,” I answered. “After I read my book we can color.”

Here I am pretending to be a turtle.

A good crowd was gathering. I closed up my backpack and opened my suitcase and pulled out one large truck and a “Viaduct” made out of a shoebox. “It’s a bridge!” one little boy said. “Yes, it is,” I answered him. “What’s this?” “Train tracks!” he said as I showed all the children the drawing of tracks on the top of the box. So we discussed what a viaduct is until it was time to read the book.

Truck Stuck is a very short book—135 words. But the pictures tell two stories, one about a truck stuck under a viaduct and another about a lemonade stand. I am learning to read in bursts and then discuss the pictures for a while and then read a few more phrases. The kids have fun following the progress of the lemonade stand and also looking at the wonderful characters that populate the pages, including an unruly troop of boy scouts, a clown handing out balloons, a country and western singer and even Elvis.

After I read the story I handed out trucks to each child. I have a truck for every vehicle mentioned in the text, if you use your imagination for some. So then I read the story again, and as each vehicle was mentioned the child with that truck lined it up behind the big truck stuck under the viaduct. This re-enactment worked well with the very young age group that had come to hear the story.

I wore my clown shoes.



Then we had a “balloon” parade, just like in the book. I handed out colored paper plates and asked the kids to pretend that these were balloons and hold them up high and follow me. We marched around the children’s section of the bookstore. When we came back to the benches we had lemonade and I handed out pictures of a truck to color. The children colored and played with the trucks while I signed books and chatted with the parents.

Balloon Parade!

I had a really fun time!

Clearly I am learning how to read my book to groups, how to relate to groups of kids I don’t know, and I am developing activities to keep the event as interactive as possible.

I also am learning just how helpful the Community Relations Manager of a store like this one can be. After everyone had left we chatted as we picked up the crayons and packed away my trucks. She recommended another Barnes and Noble that has a very well attended story hour. She told me about setting up 10 school visits for an author who then did an evening reading and signing that was attended by many of the kids he had read to earlier that day. I told her I had a book coming out next year and I would be happy to do school visits that lead to a signing. Once again I realized how there are hidden values to doing book store events, like meeting a CRM who has lots of experience with author events and is generous in sharing her experience. She has even recommended me to a school looking for authors to attend their book fair.

I left the Naperville Barnes and Noble energized and excited about more book store events to come.