Budding author, public speaker

 Last night, the Bug had her first public speaking engagement.  As did a bunch of her little kindergarten buddies.  And I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that they totally rocked it.

The event was the Mountain Area Young Writers Conference, which brings children from the entire Evergreen community together to hear a real author speak, and then to break into small groups and each read aloud a book that s/he has written.  The Bug told me that all of the kids in her group - around eight kids ranging from kindergarten through 4th grade - wrote stories about friendship.  Cool.

The Bug's book is the story of a young seahorse who helps a little lost seahorse find her home.  The Bug wrote, illustrated and dedicated it (to her whole family, the little sweetie), and her bio page states, among other things, that she wants to be a vet when she grows up.

The conference itself is great.  Eric Ode read from his book of cowboy poems, then sang some of his pirate poems.  The group leaders were friendly and made the kids feel comfortable.  Which is a trick - I know plenty of adults who'd never read their own writing aloud!  The kids each got a very official-looking sticker (think Caldecott medal) to put on their books, and a book fair raised money for the organizers.  I am looking forward to more of the Bug's original works, and to the Young Writers conferences yet to come.