Tag: smile
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December 6, 2022
I was in the grocery store last week and a woman came up to me and told me that she and her four-year old son had been reading A Very Mercy Christmas every night before bed. “He calls the it the book where Eugenia smiles,” the mother said to me. “Wait,” I said. “Does she…
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June 28, 2019
On a plane, right after we land, the woman in the seat next to me calls somebody on her phone. She is talking to them in a language that I don’t understand. She starts to cry. I’m sitting with my hand on the armrest. I stare straight ahead. I try to give her some privacy.…
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January 29, 2019
A few weeks ago, I was in Charleston, South Carolina doing a signing at the Charleston County Public Library and a young boy (maybe six years old) came through the line with a copy of Mercy Watson Thinks Like a Pig. He held up the book and said, “Did you write this?” “I did,” I…
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December 26, 2018
On this day after Christmas, I am thinking about my mother who spent the last Christmas of her life in the hospital. I am thinking about a nurse who, each time he came to get my mother out of bed, would say: “Can you put your arms around me and hold onto me as if…
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November 27, 2018
A long time ago, when I worked at Walt Disney World’s Epcot Center, I was walking through a crowd of people and a young kid (maybe four years old) reached up and grabbed hold of my hand. She did this without looking, assuming, I think, that I was her mother. I didn’t want to startle…
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September 11, 2018
When I was at the National Book Festival weekend before last, a kid came through the signing line and mumbled, “I’m supposed to ask you a question.” “You are?” I said. “Okay. I’m ready.” “Um,” said the kid. He stared down at the table. “Why did you write all these books?” “I wrote them for…