The Littlest Reviewers

They toot their own horns, but mine as well!

Ask any author what she loves, and she'll tell you it's feedback from readers. Yes, the positive stuff, but even the negative feedback has something to teach her. And book reviews--actual, official, honest-to-goodness write-ups on Amazon or Goodreads--well, those are gold.

I was in the kids' classrooms today, inventorying science kits and grading spelling tests and sharpening forests of pencils, for which the usual reward is knowing your child will not be singled out and beaten by the teacher for having slacker parents. But today there was a bonus! The third grader's teacher (who would like to be mentioned by name in my next book), surprised me with a packet of the class's book reviews. Yessir, twenty-one book reviews of Mia and the Magic Cupcakes.

Some of the highlights (spelling and grammar intact; names abbreviated to protect the innocent):

• "I thought your book was amazing, I loved your everything, it was awesome." - V.
  
• "It was so funny, I laughed my socks off." - D.
  
• "One of my favorite parts of the story was when Mia was teeny tiny and she was making frosting angels on the top of a cupcake. That made me think about being that small and thinking that a raindrop is a waterfall." - T. (is that creative, or what?)
  
• "Ms. B just read your book...to us, and when I looked around, I saw almost every kid was smiling." - N.

Love, love, love the reviews. Keep 'em coming.The earliest feedback to The Beresfords is starting to roll in--now if I could just get Ms. B to assign reviews to the adults, as well...!