Oscars? Golden Globes? Who needs those, when....

...you have Ms. Brewer's 2nd Grade class? I've mentioned before the class at school that eagerly awaits 10:30 on "Day 1" in the school cycle, the day when Mrs. Calvetti comes to tell them a story. Ms. Brewer gets more than her share of challenging students due to her misfortune in having also been certified in special ed. She has seen the value of dropping everything to have me come in to tell a story...any story. For almost two years now, I've told these kids a story every week. Today was no exception.

It was no exception, but it WAS different. They were attending a "World Premiere" telling. I asked if they knew what that meant, and Isabella said, "It means it's brand new. No one else has ever heard it."

I told you. Ms. Brewer has smart kids! They were so excited to be the very first audience, and it showed. I told them the story I'd spent time developing at my retreat a couple weeks back. One feedback suggestion was to include Red-Winged Blackbird's voice somehow. Do you have any idea how hard it is to imitate the call of that bird? Some birds have songs that lend themselves to the human voice, but not this one. Full of gurgles and metallic sounds from a syrinx, an organ not possessed by humans, it required hours of bird tape review and drive time rehearsal. Still, it was good enough for the kids, and really drew them in. This is a river town. They know all about Red-Winged Blackbirds, and each time he called, they were joining in. I'd never thought about this story's potential for participation, but there's lots of it built in.

The kids loved my story. At one point, one of the most challenging young men said, "It's a magic number! Something's going to happen next time Eagle comes by, cause it will be the third time!"

I told you. Ms. Brewer has smart kids! He was right. The story's climax was reached, and after the spell was broken, I asked the kids to tell me how they think I got the idea for my story. Ms.Brewer's kids are smart. They had lots of good ideas, many of them close to the answer.

When I was all done, many of the kids circled me, threw their arms around me and thanked me for allowing them to come to my world premiere. Even kids who just weren't huggers hugged me! The adulation was almost too much.

I told you. Ms. Brewer's kids are smart! Who needs things like the Golden Globes or Oscars when you can invite a bunch of 8-year olds to your world premiere telling of your own original porquoi tale, true critics... and they heap hugs upon you?



The star of my original porquoi tale, "How Red-Winged Blackbird Got His Red Shoulders."