Book Marks Festival, Winston-Salem!

We spent the day downtown at the Book Marks festival today, and it

was a Great way to spend the day! We were traveling during last year's

festival, and really missed it. The year before, (see here) we met lots

of great authors, including Rue McClanahan, who was just delightful!

We also have tickets to the Winston-Salem airshow this weekend,

but that will have to wait until tomorrow. Because today,... Today

was all about strolling around downtown, Authors and their books!

The first author we went to hear read was Carol Crane

She's written many children's books, but today Ms. Crane read to us

from The Handkerchief Quilt. It's a story about her mother, a teacher

that raised money to replace books damaged at her school in a flood,

by creating a quilt out of handkerchiefs given to her over the years

by her students. This quilt Ms. Crane brought is one her mother

made using left over handkerchiefs from that 1950's project 

We really enjoyed meeting Ms. Crane...

And hearing about how, at seventy-seven years Young, she

still travels all over the world Researching her book projects

Our second author was cartoonist, Patrick McDonnell...

Perhaps you've read his adorable comic strip, Mutts

Honestly, his stories were as sweet as the characters he drew for us!

Watching Earl come to life was such a treat!

Read about the cast of Mutts here...

How cute is this?

And, there's more...

Because you can't forget the signature Earl hair-sprout!

Mr. McDonnell said the fact that no one ever mows their lawn

in cartoon-land keeps him from having to draw legs and feet!

Very cleaver!

Being the cat-lovers that we are, we LOVED seeing Mooch come to life!

Just to show that he can draw legs and feet, Mr. McDonnell gave us Shtinky Puddin'!

Bip and Bop came along too!

As difficult as it is to pick a highlight for today, I think meeting

Mr. McDonnell and hearing about the Inspiration for his work is it!

I picked up my favorite of Mr. McDonnell's picture books, titled, South. It's

about a little lost bird that Earl helps back to his flock, which is just about to fly

south for the winter. The man I love asked Mr. McDonnell to sign it for me...

And, he asked him to include a little Birdie, just for me!

The final author we visited with today was Marine Maj. Brian Dennis,

whose book Nubs is about a mutilated wild Iraqi dog he helped nurse to

health, and sent back to the United States from his deployment there

Maj. Dennis is on his way back to another deployment... Just

like our Ranger. So he signed his book to PFC Brandon Bridge...

Wishing him well on his next deployment. Something we also wish for Maj. Dennis!