I posted this photo on Facebook already, but here it is again for my blog.  I was invited to give a talk about The Portal to the sixth-graders of the Gateway Regional Middle School in western Massachusetts — maybe about 60 kids in total.  A bunch of them had already read the book, and were really enthusiastic.  Yikes, I have some fans in western Massachusetts!  Here are a few of them after the talk, along with some of my show-and-tell items:

They were all great — funny, curious, and friendly.  I was going back to a classroom after the talk, and those two girls on the right offered to carry my books for me!  I was honored.  I’m always a little skeptical about people asking for my autograph–who, me?–but these kids honestly seemed happy to have me sign a scrap of paper for them.  Glad to oblige!

Here, by the way, are their current learning objectives:

How would you do on those?  Maybe I could write a persuasive five-paragraph essay, but I’d probably be pretty cranky about it.  I’ve got nothing on brook trout.  I can’t do those conversions, but I know how to get Siri to do them for me.  And that last one–create a replica of a famous monument–would make me hang my head in despair.

Still, I’d happily be part of that class.