Wowee! It's been a busy and exciting month since Fenway and Hattie hit bookshelves everywhere! Here are some highlights:

On Launch Day, I had a ball taking a copy of Fenway and Hattie to Fenway Park!

I started making the rounds - visiting local book stores, meeting fabulous booksellers, and autographing books! And there are so many more book stores I hope to visit soon. The Boston area is loaded with amazing booksellers!

Top L-R: Signing pre-orders at Henry Bears Park, Harvard Book Store, Porter Square Books, Bookends Winchester; Bottom L-R: Brookline Booksmith, Concord Bookshop, Wellesley Books, Willow Books

On February 24th, I was honored to participate in World Read Aloud Day by reading to two classes of 4th and 5th graders at Cyrus E. Dallin Elementary School. I'm so happy that superstar librarian Rebecca Aaronson agreed to host me!

I'm a big fan of serendipity! In early March, I was in New York City when on the spur of the moment I reached out to reading specialist extraordinaire Susie Rolander (pictured below) and luckily, she was available for a fun chat. I had a blast "talking shop" with and learning from this fabulous lady!

And no trip to New York is complete without a visit to the paradise for young readers, Books of Wonder! Lucky for me, picture book luminaries Sophie Blackall and Brian Floca were reading at BOW that day. Listening to Sophie read was incredible, and even more incredible was signing Fenway and Hattie alongside Brian! I was deeply honored to meet these two Caldecott winners, but honestly, the one who stole my heart that day was a dog named Deke.

On the shelf, with Sophie Blackall, signing beside Brian Floca, getting a kiss from DEKE! — *On the shelf, with Sophie Blackall, signing beside Brian Floca, getting a kiss from DEKE!*

In addition to actual visits, the book made some virtual visits, too. I'm so grateful to everyone who reviewed Fenway and Hattie or featured it (or me) online. Here are a few of the highlights:

And while all of that was a lot of fun, best of all was taking time to celebrate the book launch with my family and friends.

First was a party at Henry Bear's Park where Boston radio goddess Pebbles helped me talk about and read from Fenway and Hattie. I'm extremely thankful to Henry Bear's awesome staff who welcomed us so warmly and even provided games for the kids!

And second, it was a dream come true when I was a guest author at the place where I discovered reading as a kid, the Duxbury Free Library. I had a great time sharing how I got inside a dog's mind, as well as reading and signing books to family and longtime friends. Huge thanks to everyone, especially children's librarian Nancy Denman who is a total, total pro! Her hard work really made this event a big success.

I am beyond fortunate to be part of an amazing group of 2016 debut authors called The Sweet Sixteens. Aside from sharing the journey to publication together and forming incredible friendships, we each sent an advance reader copy (ARC) of our books "out on tour."

Now that Fenway and Hattie is widely available in book stores and libraries, it was time to welcome my ARC back home. What a thrill to see it beat up (well loved!) and check out all the notes and doodles from these talented friends.

Whew! It's been an incredible month! With the official launch behind me, I'm looking forward to connecting more with readers and visiting schools. Look for information coming soon!

This fall, I participated in Nerd Camp Long Island and WOW was it ever fun! Nerd Camp is a professional development “un-conference” for teachers centered around reading and writing and of course, books.

Back in September, I wrote a guest post for the Nerdy Book Club blog about my fascination with point of view (POV). So when rockstar teacher Kristen Picone invited me to Nerd Camp, I immediately thought of leading a session on teaching POV in the classroom.

*When we arrived at Nerd Camp, there was a blank session board. It was up to us to fill it in!*

On November 7th, more than 400 teachers and two dozen authors gathered on Long Island, ready to share and learn and embrace our mutual nerdy-ness. The energy was incredible!

*Top left: Arrival! Top right: Cake! Bottom: Author panel!*

To say that I was excited and nervous about leading a session for a room full of teachers would be a HUGE understatement. But thanks to rockstar teacher Jason Lewis who helped me put together an interactive presentation based on the FENWAY AND HATTIE classroom guide, it turned out great!

*Leading the session on POV - Photo courtesy of Kristen Picone*

From the very first moment, those teachers were ON FIRE. Their enthusiasm for POV and the creativity they put into each exercise blew me away. When our hour was up, it took a long time for the classroom to empty out, even though it was time for lunch!

Aside from my POV session, my biggest highlight was hanging out with teacher friends – those I already knew plus the amazing new friends I made. Everyone was welcoming and friendly and eager to learn and share. And man, did we ever talk about books!

In the afternoon, I had the honor of participating in my very first author panel, as well as signing advance reader copies of FENWAY AND HATTIE that Penguin had very generously donated for the event. It was a thrill to sign books for the first time – almost all of which went to elementary school classrooms. And if that wasn’t enough, Penguin also provided printed copies of the F&H classroom guide for teachers to take home!

*Top: My signing table! Bottom left: Fenway poster! Bottom right: Hanging out with fellow Putnam/Penguin author Corey Rosen Schwartz!*

All in all, Nerd Camp was a phenomenal event that I will always remember. I’m so grateful to Kristen, Jason, and all the other Nerdy Book Club friends who made this incredible experience possible!

Fenway and Hattie Post-Launch News Round-up

Nerd Camp!