Mariachi Fan Mail

Now and then I am fortunate enough to have a Velveteen Rabbit moment that shows me I am in now real in one or another area--perhaps not outstanding, but real.

One such moment occurred recently when I received my very first fan mail from young readers in Riverside, California, who wrote letters to me in class on February 3. I would like to thank their teacher Sheila McMahon for sharing the letters with me.

It would take a lot of space to include all of the letters, but I do want to list all of my correspondents' first names:

Angelo

Carmen

Carlos

Christian

César

David

Devin

Frankie

Gabriel

Haylee

Jennifer

Jovanni

Kevin

Liliana

Lupita

Ryan

Simon

Most of them are from seven to nine years of age.

Haylee writes, "I am impressed by the book you wrote." I am impressed that people take the time and interest to read.

Liliana mentions that she is seven years and asks me how old I am. I am much, much older: 45 years old, to be exact.

Among the boys, David tells me that he knows some Spanish words, and Angelo hopes that I will write another story. I'll see what I can do about that.