The Growing Up Pedro Boston Public Library Tour

July is going to be a very big month for Pedro Martinez. On July 26, he will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Then on July 28, his number 45 will be retired by the Red Sox. To celebrate, I'm spending the following three days (July 29-31) visiting nine branches of the Boston Public Library. Each event will include a presentation about my book, Growing Up Pedro, followed by a fun art project for kids. And here's the best part: every participating child will get a free hardcover copy of Growing Up Pedro!

This is all part of the Boston Public Library's excellent Read Your Way to Fenway program, which I am honored to a part of. Registration is required, and space is limited. Contact your local branch for details.

Thanks for another great school year!

As another school year comes to an end, I just wanted to say a great big THANK YOU to all the people who made this such an enjoyable year for me. I've gotten so much great feedback from teachers, librarians, parents, and students, and I really appreciate all of it.

I did over one hundred presentations at over thirty schools during the 2014-15 school year. Here are a few pictures I took along the way:

Nothing like walking into a school and seeing student artwork inspired by my books. It floors me every time.

Wow!

Nice Gingerbread Pirates window art, with a hand-painted baseball bulletin board in the background!

How awesome are these baseballs!?! The shading!

Well done, Lily!

Even after doing this for over fifteen years, it's always a little surreal to walk into a building and see stuff like this.

...and this.

Sometimes they even give me cake! I had a nice big slice of this one (because it would have been rude not to, right?)!

Then a few days later at a different school... another baseball cake! And chocolate chip cookies. Nomnomnom.

Love this student drawing of me giving a presentation on Growing Up Pedro. Not bad!

School visits often lead to me getting some really awesome mail!

Hey, anything I can do to help! :)

It takes a lot of hard work from a lot of people to make a successful school visit. So thank you to the parent volunteers who organize the book orders, and to the librarians and teachers who share my books with their students leading up to the big day, and to all the teachers who follow up my presentations with fun writing and art projects. And of course, thanks to all the kids for being great listeners, and for their interesting questions, their thoughtful letters and their awesome artwork.

I've said this before but I'll say it again- when I set out to be a children's book author-illustrator, I had no idea I'd end up spending so much time talking in front of large groups of people. And as someone who used to dread getting up in front of the class to speak, I never imagined how much I would enjoy it.

So thanks! Looking forward to another great school year in 2015-16. I've already got trips planned to Utah, Texas and Minnesota! Can't wait.

But first... SUMMER!