Tuesday I went to Uxbridge with three Toronto authors, and met more authors there. We ate lunch with the kids, gave brief talks, signed books and chatted. The drive was gorgeous – spring is a couple of weeks ahead of Calgary, and it was a joy to see green.

The Forest of Reading award ceremony is at Harbourfront, in Toronto, and it’s a huge festival. For the award event, we walked on stage in a little parade of author, student presenter, and student sign-carrier, while the audience cheered for their favorite books. The student presenters who introduced the authors were wonderful – thank you, Dani! We were cheered like rock stars – those kids are passionate about their books!

At the book signing (well, a book, bookmark, notebook and bits of paper signing), a group of kids from the grade 3 class of Olivet New Church school brought me a present. We’d exchanged emails in the spring – and they’d made a paper mache dinosaur for me.

Around her neck is a sign that says “Hello, my name is Alice. I am an Apatosaurus. I belong in the class of Sauropods. Sauropods were among the largest land animals that ever lived. I am an herbivore, which means that when you use the magic potion to make me come alive, I will not attack you.”

Alice is wonderful. She was a little difficult to get home; airplanes are not really designed for dinosaurs. However, the WestJet attendants thought Alice was wonderful, too, and found a safe place for her.

Now, in case anyone thinks, “Oh, what a great idea. Maureen collects dinosaurs – let’s send her one,” please don’t. Please! One dinosaur is quite enough for a small office already populated by gumbie, two dragons and two frog princes (in frog form, with crowns).

Send me pictures. Send me stories. Tell me all about it. Alice has lots of company already, and I think populating homes and classrooms across the country with paper mache dinosaurs is a noble goal.

Maureen