Little blurry but you can still make out their weird monster faces.
Last night the kids and I went to our local Barnes and Noble to meet Jonathan Auxier, author of the book, “Peter Nimble With His Fantastic Eyes.” He had visited my daughter’s school for an assembly earlier this week and she was DYING to get her book signed.
I just love our local Barnes and Noble. Yes, the books are more expensive than Amazon or Target. But this store hosts activities like the book signing and the yearly book fair throughout the year. They let these kids run all over, sometimes in costume or pajamas and all sorts of get-ups. They bring in authors and storytellers and artists. And the kids? They love it.
Back to Peter Nimble. Loved the weird storyline and writer. The story is about young Peter, a blind orphan. You think, “awww” poor kid. But he’s actually the world’s greatest thief ever. And how did he go blind? A crow pecked his eyes out as a baby. Gross, right? What kind of children’s book is this? And yet, I found the whole thing funny. I guess my kids must have the same warped sense of humor. And if the line through the children’s section of the store was any indicator, we weren’t the only ones.
Jake, of course, also picked a title that fit him well.
So we wait in line, getting closer and closer. Watching Jonathan talk with the kids and sketch pictures along with his signature into the books. I hear, “And what’s your favorite animal young lady?” And the little blonde 5th grader ahead of us says, “A horse!” So he sketches a nice horse coming out of the page … and then adds a half eaten kid hanging out of the horses mouth.
We get to the front wondering what he’s going to draw for my daughter, Maegan. She tells him her name and he asks, “What’s your favorite book?” She tells him “The Hunger Games.” He says, “What?? You’re reading The Hunger Games? Wow.” And he looks at me like, and you think my book’s bad?
Then he says, “I’m going to draw you my favorite animal.” And sketches a cool crow into Maegan’s book. He asks her why this is his favorite animal and she says, “It pecks Peter Nimble’s eyes out when he was a baby.”
So I say, “Pretty dark, eh?” And he says, “Uh huh. Hunger Games.”
We snap a lovely picture, say thanks and leave him to finish drawing more child-eating characters for his fans.
