Diana

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I love Texas. Yeah, me, a Jersey boy. The thing is, the librarians in Texas work really hard to get kids into reading. I'm visiting five middle schools in Sugar Land (near Houston) this week. In most of the schools, I'm only speaking to one grade. Why? Because many of the middle schools bring in a different author for each grade. Imagine that -- three author visits to coordinate each year. And the libraries have great displays of the Lone Star Book lists. It's just really good in many ways. As I wander around each library, I just marvel at how much good stuff is out there for kids to read.

The kids I've spoken to have been wonderful. I had 7th graders on Monday, and they were among the best behaved I've ever met. The same for today's sixth graders. The teachers were also wonderful. So, yeah, I love Texas. On top of everything else, it's warm. Once I go back home, I won't be warm again for months. But even if it was cold, I'd be happy to be here.

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These are on the Simon and Schuster website, so I guess they're okay to share! Both will be out next summer....

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