Braving the heat

The initial rush of interest in The Littlest Knight has died down, and with the summer heat upon us, I haven't given much thought to doing any more marketing, opting to wait until the school year starts again; however, the good folks at the Osgoode Medieval Festival invited me to do a reading this past weekend.  The weather was sweltering hot, but attendance was fantastic.  I found a nice shady spot under a tree, gathered a few parents and their kids, and read The Littlest Knight.  (Thanks, also, to my attentive and supportive friends who I've known since as far back as grade two!)

 

One thing I realized is that I probably need an abridged version of the story for events such as this.  It's going to be something I work on so that I'm not reading straight from the text, but speaking more around the illustrations.  I could tell the kids would be more interested if they were engaged, so I broke from the text several times to ask them questions and make comments.  Eye contact was really important.  They stayed to the end, so I think they enjoyed what they heard.

Another lesson learned?  When the humidex is set to hit 40 degrees, choose a blouse with short sleeves and skip the bloomers! :)