- Journal #1 of Flat Hannah’s Adventure
[Prologue] Recently I received a mail from Hannah, a 2nd grader and daughter of my friend, who lives in Southern California. In her letter, Hannah explained to me that her class is doing Flat Stanley Project and she needs my help. Flat Stanley is a book series about a boy who was flattened by a bulletin board and goes on to have exiting adventures. For this project, Hannah drew a self-portrait as she becomes Flat Hannah, which she included in her mail to me, too. Hannah asked me to take Flat Hannah around to have four different adventures and, in addition, I need to write four journals about Flat Hannah’s adventures, one for each, and mail them back, along with Flat Hannah (the self-portrait), any photos, cards, and souvenirs, to Hannah’s school directly before the 22nd of this month.
The first interesting opportunity I found for Flat Hannah was that Caroline Kennedy would pay a visit to a west suburban of Chicago to introduce her new book of Poems to Learn by Heart. The following is the journal written about Flat Hannah’s adventure she took on that day.
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April 4, 2013
Today, Flat Hannah traveled nearly 2,000 miles, from Orange, California to a west suburb of Chicago, Illinois to meet with Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of late President John F. Kennedy.
Caroline was invited by Anderson’s Bookstore to introduce her new book of “Poems to Learn by Heart”, a collection of her favorite 192 children poems. The event was held at a local College at 7p.m. When Flat Hannah arrived, it was only 6:15 p.m. Flat Hannah saw at least two hundred people had already lined up in the windy and chilly evening to wait for the door opening of the theater. The temperature outside was below 40⁰F. Yet, Flat Hannah was very excited and felt honored to be one of the 500 hundred lucky people who had the great chance to meet with Caroline Kennedy in person tonight!
The event started with 15 students whom were selected from the local school district poem contest. They recited or read 15 poems collected by Caroline in her new anthology, including poem “Under the Bed” by Penny Trzynka, “Brother” by Mary Ann Hoberman, and “Homework” by Jane Yolan. These students performed wonderfully. They were arranged in different ages and grades, from elementary and high schools. Some of them are in Flat Hannah’s age and grade.
Next, Caroline Kennedy came to the podium and gave her speech. She shared with the audience that poetry was her family's tradition. She and her brother used to read, write and recite poems. They wrote poems to grandparents and parents for their birthdays, Mother’s Days, and Christmas holidays. Caroline has kept the poetry tradition to her own family with her children, too. In her speech, Caroline encouraged American families to do the same as well. She then mentioned that there might be many poets unknown yet for now. However, if we encourage our children to read and write poems, then we will have many new poets in the near future. In addition, Caroline pointed out that reciting poems is a good skill for children to have and it can be fun, too. Caroline’s speech was informal, interesting and fun. Flat Hannah and the rest of the audience listened, laughed, and applauded.
Caroline’s book-signing was followed by her speech. Since there were 500-some participants of this event would like to get Caroline’s autograph, the organizer of the event, staff of Anderson’s Bookstore, had to assign a number to each person who bought the event ticket and Caroline Kennedy’s book before the event. At the theater, the staff called every 25 assigned numbers to line up in the middle aisle of the theater and wait for Caroline to sign each book one at a time. The audience was very cooperative and orderly. Flat Hannah was assigned the number 300, so she was in the 20th calling batch. When her turn finally came, Flat Hannah smiled and watched closely to see Caroline Kennedy signing the book for her! In few short seconds, Flat Hannah introduced herself to Caroline that she’s a 2nd-grade student who lives in Southern California and currently traveled far away here for adventures, including meeting with Caroline. Caroline smiled and said “Very good! I’m glad you came and hope you will like this book and other poems.”
Tonight, meeting with Caroline Kennedy and learning about poetry’s values made Flat Hannah’s first adventure a great one.
Flat Hannah and Caroline's book, Poems to Learn by Heart
Flat Hannah took a photo with Caroline
