What’s been going on with the children’s book The Sun Jumped Over the Moon Part 2
After the book reading in the woods in the Savannah, GA area, I went to dinner in old town Savannah. Have you been to Savannah? The sidewalks are made up of bricks that are haphazardly raised up due to the roots of old trees that are decades old, pushing them up to make for uneven pavement.
After dinner, I caught my toe - I was wearing flip flops; never wear flip flops in Savannah old town - on one of the raised bricks and fell face down onto the sidewalk. My face literally face planted onto the uneven bricks and bounced three times. That is how hard I hit. As I was falling, I reached out with my right hand to grab an iron fence trying to break my fall which resulted in a hairline fracture to the wrist. As I laid there kissing the bricks for a few seconds waiting to see if there was going to be blood and where the pain was going to develop, I started laughing thinking this had to be hilarious to witness. Be assured, it was not a graceful fall.
There was no blood. My face was fine and did not have any immediate pain. My wrist hurt a little and was starting to swell. By the time we made it back to Diane’s house, my face was every color of black, blue and brown. My nose was just a tiny bit swollen but didn’t feel broken. And now my arm was hurting a lot. So, we iced it down and I went to bed – I had a reading early the next morning.
When I arrived at the school and reported to the library, the librarian took one look at me and politely asked me to leave the building. She made it very clear I was going to frighten the children.
At that time, I decided to go to the emergency room to make sure there was no major damage to my face or arm. After several x-rays, the doctor was shocked that there were no broken facial bones with how bad I looked. After securing a wrist brace, off to Ulta we went to see if make-up would help hide the bruising.
The girls at Ulta performed miracles.
The next day’s readings took place at a school that had separate trailers for each classroom. It was a hot humid day and I had to walk outside to get to each class. By the time I arrived at the 2nd grade trailer – the last reading for the day – I could feel my makeup melting and patting it with tissues wasn’t helping. At the end of the reading and the question-and-answer part of the program, a little girl raised her hand and told me that I was so pretty! I thanked her and told the class that I needed to hear that today because I fell and bruised my face and didn’t feel very pretty. A little boy came up to me and gave me a hug and stated, “We know. We can see it, but you’re still pretty.” So of course I gave the entire 2nd grade class a free book.
Can you believe that? Such true kindness from such little ones. I love the babies!!!
When I got into my car and saw myself in the mirror, I Iooked like a train wreck with the bruising and the melted makeup.
If we all hung out with young kids every day, what a kinder world it would be.
Lisa Cucchi, who is a friend of mine, teaches 2nd grade at St. Coleman’s Catholic School in Pompano Beach, FL. After reading to her class and giving every child a book, she had turned the book into a play. She assigned a character to each student. As they acted out the story she filmed the production. It is the cutest thing ever! The kids did a great job, especially with the sound effects for each character.
Since I moved back to MI, I have been doing readings for birthday parties.
I have many requests for the book to give as shower gifts for baby showers, predominantly from grandmoms and great grandmothers.
They love seeing their future baby’s names in the book. I have also rec’d so many thank you cards, and fan letters from children who now have a copy of the book. How fun is that? It keeps me motivated!!! The book is still being well received, and the fun just keeps on coming.
A Big Thank You to everyone who has supported this project and continues to spread the word about the various options for the book. I am game for anything so if any one has any ideas or requests, please reach out to me anytime.
Until next Sunday! Have a fun filled week.
Kathy