Eating HIS Words

I've been reading variations of this story, about the children's author Richard Lynn Stack, for a few days now. I don't know this author or any of his books that I know of. I have no idea the actual context of the conversation everyone is reporting on but I do have some background knowledge about the difficult job these authors face when visiting schools and interacting with hundreds of children they've never met before in one day.

We had an author visit our school a month or two ago (and another coming - I'll write about him later) and I sat in on his talk. He was funny, as many authors are, and he used a story about peeing in his pants as an example of writing from an experience in his own life. You would NEVER tell that story to a group of adults and expect the same reaction as the kids had. The adults laughed, thought it was funny and moved on. The kids were horrified, some did not react at all but looked more embarrassed and others laughed themselves silly either because they'd never heard of such a thing or wanted everyone else to think they'd never heard of such a thing. It was an interesting story to tell, it was from a book he'd written and set the stage for a relationship these children would have with this author for the day that involved humor.

As part of the "deal" in having a visiting author, it is always a pleasure when the author agrees to meet the children, sign their BOOKS and some even agree to have a picture taken with the children. I can say as a former teacher, now a parent, that this really means a lot to the kids, but it's a huge commitment for the author. He/she will meet lots of children in a short amount of time, ask for their name, sign their book, smile for the camera, onto the next. In fact, we still have not received a book by the previous author who was to sign all 300 books the parents purchased AND give 4 talks during the day AND have his picture taken with all the students. It's really asking a bit much, don't you think?

So, I'm envisioning this author, having spent a day with these children, given talks, signed BOOKS, trying to remain the goofy kids author that he presented to everyone and some little girl catches him completely off guard by asking if he'll sign her forehead?? He's not a rockstar or in the movies - he's a children's author! Obviously, from the request, this child is a bit of a clown or just plain odd. So, he replies, "sure if....." what would you say, completely off the cuff, not even knowing what kind of crazy stories this author may have told these kids already?? would you say "jump off a bridge?", "do 10 jumping jacks?" or "if you sign mine, I'll sign yours?" Instead, he said, and I'm sure regrets, "get up on the table and take off all your clothes!" In other words, "NO, I SIGN BOOKS, NOT FOREHEADS!" If he'd said any of these other things OR if he'd signed her forehead, he might be in the same boat without all the media attention.

I agree, what he said was just plain bad and very inappropriate, but I'm totally doubting this guy, who is probably an amazing children's author/speaker/advocate for kids, meant any harm regarding this incident. Chances are, it will never happen again, of course he'll probably never have the chance to speak again around here, nor will he choose to interact with students the way that the kids LOVE when an author visits. It's really a shame. I could be wrong, but I'll give this guy, knowing what he does for a living, the benefit of all this doubt!

(Steven Kellogg is coming to our school - I'm SOOOOOOOOO excited!)