magnetic

This morning I gave a talk in a middle school auditorium full of two hundred 6th graders! They were a very diverse, very well-behaved group and I was struck by the range of students that came up to me after the talk. My presentation is usually interactive but that’s hard to do with such a large group. I told the students, in French, that I was from Canada and one white boy came up to me afterward and said, “Je parle français aussi!” “Really? D’où viens-tu?” I asked him, and he told me about his French mother and his German father. Another white boy bought a copy of Ship of Souls, had me sign it, and then came back to tell me that he was so excited when he learned I was coming to school today because it’s his birthday. But what struck me most were the Black girls—the way they circled me and stayed close, asking questions, then drifting away, and then coming back to tell me something else. Two Asian girls wanted to take a picture with me and had to elbow their way into the pack. A young woman wearing hijab came in before my presentation and told me how excited she was to meet an author. I complimented her on her sparkly glasses and she said, “They need to see us wearing glasses! They need to know that we read!” Later she returned and pulled out her phone so we could take a picture. Almost all the kids had smart phones! Hand-me-downs from their parents, I guess. I brought 6 books to sell but the principal decided to buy the books from me and hold a raffle on the spot instead. It’s wonderful to see two hundred kids wriggling in their seats, anxiously waiting to hear their name called. When I got home I turned on NPR and Neil deGrasse Tyson was talking about the Andromeda galaxy and how it’s being drawn toward our own. That’s how I felt with those girls circling me—it was like there was some kind of force drawing us together. I say over and over that my books are for all kids, and it means a lot to me when kids of other races express enthusiasm about my work. But I know that my presence means something special to Black girls. One 6th grader stuck to me like glue and one of the first things she said was, “Thank you for making a book with girls who look like us.”

I need to come up with a business model that will enable me to sell more books at more schools. For the past few years I’ve earned more from honoraria than I have from royalties. I wonder if I could flip that by doing free author talks at schools that can guarantee the sale of at least 50 books. Giving out order forms before my visit doesn’t work because the kids don’t get excited about the books until I’m there giving my presentation. And then they don’t have money to buy books. At this particular school the librarian is handing out more order forms; we’ll see how many kids can sustain their excitement long enough to complete a purchase…