I have a growing collection of children’s books signed by their authors. Now, I have a children’s book signed by...a politician! Al Franken is running for the U.S. Senate in Minnesota and he autographed my son’s dinosaur book.
Back when Al was promoting his book The Truth (with jokes), he stopped by our quaint little town of San Luis Obispo. Jay invited me to go with him to listen to Al talk, but I had no babysitter so my little boy went with us.
We stood in the back of the cramped bookstore listening to him speak (I was just standing, Jay was on his tip-toes, and my little boy was sitting on the table which held all of Al’s books).
We were all very excited: Jay loves his radio show, I love the fact that he’s a Dead Head, and my son loved sitting on that table. But I had to make sure my boy stayed quiet during his speech, so I ran over to the children’s section and grabbed a book that I knew would keep his attention: Dinosaurs!
Al spoke, Jay and I laughed, and my son yelled, “Look, Stegosaurus!” After lots of shhh-shing, we finally made it through Al’s speech without too much rude behavior.
Then came the book signing. I looked at my adorable son sitting on that table with all of Al’s expensive hard cover books, waving that $2.99 soft cover dinosaur book at me...you can just guess which book I purchased. (Sorry, Al.)
But I wasn’t going to leave that building without Al’s autograph. So we stood in line to get the book signed. But it was a really long line and my boy was getting tired and I was getting tired and...oh, like you wouldn’t do the same thing!
“Um, Jay? Would you mind standing in line and getting our book signed for us?”
“Sure. Where’s your book?”
My son handed it to Jay.
“This? I’m supposed to walk up to Al Franken and have him sign...this?”
Believe me, there’s no way you could’ve said no to that adorable face either. So here it is...
Thank you, Al. I remind my son of your wise words every day.
Al Franken in 2008! Woo-hoo!
- Robin
THIS MESSAGE WAS NOT PAID FOR BY AL FRANKEN FOR SENATE
7 comments:
Whose adorable face couldn't Al resist, Jay's or Luke's? Just asking. Lamy
What GREAT advice!!
I took my toddler to a book signing once and he insisted that the Famous author sign a winnie the pooh book. FAmous Author wrote--
"I did not write this book." : )
Laura~~
Hi Laura, I love that this same sort of thing happened to you, too. How adorable!
And Lamy-- you know Jay's a handsome guy and all, but my boy is a total heartbreaker. Seriously, he already had a marriage proposal...and he's four.
Robin
That's so funny! We love Al, and miss him on the radio already, but would LOVE to watch him on C-Span someday in the Senate. Can you imagine? Fingers crossed!
That's priceless. I'd have done the same thing. I took my son to a book singing, but he didn't want the authors book. He wanted a Hot wheel book and asked the author to sign it. She didn't. He didn't care either way; the book came with a real Hot wheel car. Thats all that mattered.
Wow Don,
She wouldn't sign a Hot Wheels book??
I look forward to the day someone would ask me to sign a Hot wheels book.. Hot wheels are cool!!
~~~Laura
Hey Laini! Love your blog and can't wait to check out your book when it comes out!
And Don, my son has a hot wheel obssession, too. Which is much easier for me, because saying "look, a red one!" is much easier than saying "look, a diplodocus!"
-Robin
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