Mike Lupica at Kepler's

Take Me Out to the Bookstore!

Acclaimed sportswriter Mike Lupica came to Kepler's recently to talk about his new book, The Big Field. And his visit turned out to be a big hit. Here are Angela K.'s notes on the event:

In honor of Mike Lupica's visit we turned the bookstore into a relaxing place for the crowd to watch highlights from the 2007 World Series, eat popcorn, and drink root beer.
We also had our T-ball team, the Kepler's Klobberers show up for this event. The coach and assistant coach came and handed out the uniforms and caps, which the kids were really happy and excited to get. Prior to the event, Mike agreed to come out and take a group picture with the team. He greeted each kid individually and even stayed for the funny face picture at the end.

Mike is a very high-energy person--he had to be doing something every second that he was in the store. This worked very well in his presentation because he never let it drag, it was constant laughs and anecdotes that were entertaining, but meaningful.
When Mike started his presentation, he told the kids that he had to tell them a sad story. Then, he proceeded to say, "When I was a kid, there was NO INTERNET!" I kid you not, the children in the audience gasped in astonishment and fear. He kept on listing the things that he didn't have when he was growing up. When he said, "When I was a kid, there was NO INSTANT MESSAGING!", a little girl perched on her father's lap paused from drinking her root beer to shout out "DAMN!". And, of course, everyone burst out laughing.

I thought that it was interesting that he spoke to the fact that he has been deemed the "King of Reluctant Readers"--which is quite true. (One girl in the signing line said to him, "Thank you for making reading fun for me.") He felt that reluctant readers was an overused and misused term because he thinks that it isn't so much that the kids don't want to read its that they haven't found what it is they like to read. He went on to say that he thinks that the appeal of his books is that they are about real kids in real situations coming together to accomplish something that they didn't think was possible. Surely, the fact that his books sell so well is proof that he has found something that really works. ~ Angela K.