Quilting for boys? A Sweet Accolade

Anyone who knows me, knows I love to write. I blog, I write poetry, youth lit and I have several children's picture books on the go. As I polish my stories and search out a publisher, I find it invaluable to test them out on children - in particular, my son, but also family, friends, and at local literacy events in my community.

Getting to the point of having this on my fibre art blog - I recently tested out my children's picture book about quilting on a wide-eyed group of cub scout boys. They were blurting out questions and heckling but as I taught them the ins and outs of quilting through my story they became rather interested - especially with my antics of tossing a quilt over top of them all. At the end I asked the boys what was their favourite part of the story. I got a few helpful answers and then one boy said, "I liked the vikings best!"

I said, "There were no vikings in my story! That was the reader before me!"

He said, " I know, but the vikings would have been happy people and nice to each other if they had quilts!"

It was so fun I laughed all the way home. And more recently, I received the warmest letter from the two female cub scout leaders. This is what they wrote...

Dear Brandy,

Thank you for participating in the library's 2012 Literacy day event, "Read Around the Clock." If someone had told me they planned to entertain 15 - 10 year old cub scouts with a girls quilting story... I would've said, "You're crazy!" I have re-learned 2 things - Never make assumptions & don't pay attention to stereotyped ideas! You did such a great job - the cubs loved it! Thank you for expanding our literary journey.

Adele & Sue

As I wrote this blog I realized this was the first testimonial in my yet to be published writing career. It feel's great to have my first accolade!