A Bookish Trip to Boston
and a spring stroll through the Public Garden
This past week was spring break for our family, which meant a quick trip to Boston and a mini-book tour for Make Way! On Tuesday, I did a “Storytime with the Author” for Wellesley Books, with one very special guest:
It was an honor to read in the presence of Nancy Schön, sculptor of the ducklings that grace the Boston Public Garden and one half of the “dual biography” that makes up Make Way. We had a delightful conversation during the Q&A session after storytime, where Nancy spoke to how she “studied the masters,” poring over Robert McCloskey’s sketches in the Special Collections at the Boston Public Library in order to reinterpret them in bronze.
The next day, our family visited the actual ducks in the Boston Public Garden. A pair of mallards, who my children dubbed Frank and Sally, waddled right up to us and struck a pose.
This was just before storytime at Beacon Hill Books and Café, which is every bit as magical as it looks:
Really, though, the best thing about the week was hearing stories from people who love Make Way for Ducklings and the bronze ducks in the Boston Public Garden, across generations. Young and old alike shared what the mallard family means to them, the traditions the book and art has created in their individual families, and how they look forward to continuing those traditions with new (and future) generations. And really, what are art and stories, if we don’t share our love for them with someone else?
Boston, you have my whole heart.
