a welcoming week in Ohio

In March, I did a marathon of school visits--with Rain Dragon coming, these are my last presentations until next spring--so I wanted to squeeze in as many as possible. And I was very glad (and lucky) that  on the schedule was a week of schools in Cincinnati, OH.

Every school gave me such a warm welcome!  From the parking lot:

to the foyers:

I was greeted with dragons:

dogs:

and even Ling and Ting!

One school even performed for me, with a Chinese folk song and ribbon dance:



isn't that amazing?


Because these Ohio schools really loved reading and books! One school decided to make a dragon, with the scales representing student reading (I think every time a student finished a book they could add a scale onto the dragon). As you can see, it became a very, very long dragon!

it just went on and on and on!

I was incredibly impressed when at an afternoon event they specifically served all the food that was mentioned in Dumpling Days. From the pineapple cakes:

to Pocky and oranges:

and, of course, the dumplings!

I wish I had had them cater my Dumpling Days book launch!

All the schools were so wonderful that it would be impossible to mention all the great things they each did. But I will finish this post with this introduction that the students gave me before one of my presentations:



 Isn't that sweet? I've never been introduced like that before!

Thanks so much, Ohio schools!!!