Meeting with Caroline Kennedy

- Journal #1 of Flat Hannah’s Adventure

[Prologue] Recently I received a mail from Hannah, a 2^nd grader and daughter of my friend, who lives in Southern California. In her letter, Hannah explained to me that her class is doing Flat Stanley Project and she needs my help. Flat Stanley is a book series about a boy who was flattened by a bulletin board and goes on to have exiting adventures. For this project, Hannah drew a self-portrait as she becomes Flat Hannah, which she included in her mail to me, too. Hannah asked me to take Flat Hannah around to have four different adventures and, in addition, I need to write four journals about Flat Hannah’s adventures, one for each, and mail them back, along with Flat Hannah (the self-portrait), any photos, cards, and souvenirs, to Hannah’s school directly before the 22^nd of this month.

The first interesting opportunity I found for Flat Hannah was that Caroline Kennedy would pay a visit to a west suburban of Chicago to introduce her new book of Poems to Learn by Heart. The following is the journal written about Flat Hannah’s adventure she took on that day.

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 Caroline Kennedy signing her book for Flat Hannah

April 4, 2013

Today, Flat Hannah traveled nearly 2,000 miles, from Orange, California to a west suburb of Chicago, Illinois to meet with Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of late President John F. Kennedy.

Caroline was invited by Anderson’s Bookstore to introduce her new book of “Poems to Learn by Heart”, a collection of her favorite 192 children poems. The event was held at a local College at 7p.m. When Flat Hannah arrived, it was only 6:15 p.m. Flat Hannah saw at least two hundred people had already lined up in the windy and chilly evening to wait for the door opening of the theater. The temperature outside was below 40⁰F. Yet, Flat Hannah was very excited and felt honored to be one of the 500 hundred lucky people who had the great chance to meet with Caroline Kennedy in person tonight!

The event started with 15 students whom were selected from the local school district poem contest. They recited or read 15 poems collected by Caroline in her new anthology, including poem “Under the Bed” by Penny Trzynka, “Brother” by Mary Ann Hoberman, and “Homework” by Jane Yolan. These students performed wonderfully. They were arranged in different ages and grades, from elementary and high schools. Some of them are in Flat Hannah’s age and grade.

Next, Caroline Kennedy came to the podium and gave her speech. She shared with the audience that poetry was her family's tradition. She and her brother used to read, write and recite poems. They wrote poems to grandparents and parents for their birthdays, Mother’s Days, and Christmas holidays.  Caroline has kept the poetry tradition to her own family with her children, too.  In her speech, Caroline encouraged American families to do the same as well. She then mentioned that there might be many poets unknown yet for now. However, if we encourage our children to read and write poems, then we will have many new poets in the near future.  In addition, Caroline pointed out that reciting poems is a good skill for children to have and it can be fun, too. Caroline’s speech was informal, interesting and fun. Flat Hannah and the rest of the audience listened, laughed, and applauded.

Caroline’s book-signing was followed by her speech. Since there were 500-some participants of this event would like to get Caroline’s autograph, the organizer of the event, staff of Anderson’s Bookstore, had to assign a number to each person who bought the event ticket and Caroline Kennedy’s book before the event. At the theater, the staff called every 25 assigned numbers to line up in the middle aisle of the theater and wait for Caroline to sign each book one at a time. The audience was very cooperative and orderly. Flat Hannah was assigned the number 300, so she was in the 20^th calling batch. When her turn finally came, Flat Hannah smiled and watched closely to see Caroline Kennedy signing the book for her! In few short seconds, Flat Hannah introduced herself to Caroline that she’s a 2^nd-grade student who lives in Southern California and currently traveled far away here for adventures, including meeting with Caroline. Caroline smiled and said “Very good! I’m glad you came and hope you will like this book and other poems.”

Tonight, meeting with Caroline Kennedy and learning about poetry’s values made Flat Hannah’s first adventure a great one. 

Flat Hannah and Caroline's book, Poems to Learn by Heart

Flat Hannah took a photo with Caroline

[Riverbrook]

回复九月独处的评论:

你好~~~~，九月才貌双佳： 看见你来才叫我“高薪”呢！我这“几百年玩一次家家”似的写一下，不必“骚扰”大家。还是因被梅兰医生（又一令我全体投地的美才女；“五体”远已不够）"push" 了一下，加上正好也为远方朋友女儿的 project,便就写了这“开张”后的俩篇。我平时也忙 （但定比你好)，思路慢、笔头钝，所以要久久地才能"窝"出一篇来。"不过没关系", 这是近几年来新学的功课---原谅自己 :))

从你的博文和与读者对话中，我能想象你非常忙---工作，孩子，出书，写博、家务，晨跑。。。面面俱到！ 望你也学得一点原谅自己，偷点小懒的本领。^_^

我“偷偷”地去你那儿好几回，喜欢你的文，你的菜，还有你的 grate taste in selecting of those sooooooooo classic and elegant MTVs, songs, and music...! That's why I can't help but call you as "九月才貌双佳"! Reading yours, Doc Meilan's, along with some others' great blogs let me, once again, appreciate 上博客的大甜头！ 谢谢你, 谢谢我梅兰医生/朋友和从你们那里“衍生"出来(derive)的好博文好博人！I have been so enjoyed lately. ^_^

Yes, Caroline is very intelligent,sophisticated yet genuine lady, as you pointed out. She is also low-key, as well. She may become the next U.S. ambassador to Japan, according to the Internet a couple of weeks ago.

Thanks for your coming and kind comments!

怡

[九月独处]

怡，问好！我来了！～～不好意思最近忙到要跳楼，少有上网的时间，一直没有来看你，我刚刚把下星期的菜啊肉啊的洗好切好，在我博客里看到你，好开心，好开心！～～

这是你的第三篇博文了吗？或者说这才是你的第三篇博文呀，就做的这么棒了，真是好能干！～～

I remember Caroline Kennedy during Obama's 2008 Presidential race,was she first interested in the vacant Senate seat from New York, then withdrew for personal reason? C Kennedy is an intelligent,sophisticated yet genuine lady!~~~

问好梅兰医生！怡，梅兰，新周快乐顺利！～～

[Riverbrook]

回复梅兰松竹的评论:

梅兰医生/朋友：我采用了你的建议---将我个人信息公开以share 我的"随意漫步、即兴而言". 敬请搏友们指教，也请各位别因为我偶尔打鱼却可能多日晒网的“作风”而失望。

再次谢谢梅兰医生/朋友的鼓励

[梅兰松竹]

回复Riverbrook的评论:

You did just fine with picture posting. I have not used the new format, can't comment much yet :))

Thanks for the tip, you are indeed a very smart shopper!!:))

BTW, I suggest you open your personal info page which will show your blog content. So when people click on your ID photo, they will be able to get in and read your blog posts. Such good writing should be shared by others~~~~

Enjoy your weekend~

[Riverbrook]

Hi My Dear Friend,

WOW,you are a nightingale! :-) Please allow me to borrow what I recently learned from reading comments giving in your blogs that, you've just got yourself a sofa here! ^_^ While it may be already too late for me to bring a cup of nice and hot tea to you, I'd like to extend you with my warm and friendly bear hug! ;-)

Thanks for your kind remarks and encouragement. However, I am still not familiar with photo attachment, as mine looks too small and plain so far. I need to learn and get it better later.

BTW, if you’d like to buy Caroline's book in a batch for children, I suggest you to get them online for a half-price only of charge, which is $9.99/each, comparing with $19.99/each as I paid at the bookstore. (Wow, so proud of myself - for being thrift and smart in using of money. Hehe)

Night, night.

[梅兰松竹]

Wow, what a memorable day Flat Hannah had!!!:)))

Beautiful writing with nice pictures, Jiyi, I've learned so much from this short post, absolutely love it~~~

I will go to get a few copies of that poetry book for my boys and children at church....

Jiyi, thanks for this inspiring post! Love you!