Wish Fulfillment

As close readers of this website--so, basically, me and my husband--already know, when I was seven years old my mom and I sent my first picture book off to the Scholastic Book Club.  It was called The Little Red Train, and I can't show you what it looked like, because I never saw it again, but I can tell you it looked a lot like this--      --a book I wrote around the same time, only the one we sent off had a red train instead of a purple tugboat.Weeks went by and, shockingly, I did not hear back from the editors.  Months went by—nothing.Every  month when the book club newsletter came, I kept looking for my book for sale, thinking maybe the editors at Scholastic wanted to surprise me by publishing Little Red Train without telling me.They didn’t surprise me.  I got on with my life, albeit with my spirit a wee bit diminished.So I am exceptionally pleased to report that, all these decades later, my book is finally a Scholastic Book Club book.  No, not Little Red Train.  But just as exciting for me, a special paperback edition of Imperfect Spiral is an October 2013 Scholastic Book Club selection.The seven-year-old who lives inside of me is very, very happy.She is also laughing, and here is why:  Imperfect Spiral is the "October Tearjerker" and--can you read this in the image I've pasted here on the left?--when you buy the book you get a pack of tissues.And on the pack of tissues is this:  "Read it and weep!"You could call this a case of be-careful-what-you-wish-for.  I'd rather just laugh, and thank the Scholastic Book Club for finally fulfilling my wish.