Here is the final, absolutely gorgeous cover of Can I Sit With You Too? Our thanks, once more, to Amy Freels and Lea Hernandez for donating their time, talents, and skills to a very fine cause.
The interior of the book is almost, almost done. Jennyalice and I have a few final tweaks to instate today and tomorrow, but if everything goes as planned, come Wednesday you will be able to order your own copy and tell everyone else you know to buy one, too.
I am hyperventilating just a bit about sending this book out into the world. Not because of the hard work -- that is mostly its own reward (my tired husband may disagree) -- but because the essay I wrote for this collection is a very frank description of how completely obsessed with sex my fifth-grade friends and I were, even though we were dorky, sheltered children with few actual facts on hand. The essay was easy to write but difficult to post and is a story I had to force myself to share, because I think it is important information. Fifth graders need to know, will be relieved to know that no, they're not nasty perverts just because they talk about sex all of the time.
I am sick to my stomach just thinking about this story being read by my mother, or mother-in-law -- or third grade teacher, who recently sent me a nice letter saying how wonderful Can I Sit With You? is.
But I think I'm ready to let my own fifth-grader read it.
