826michigan OMNIBUS, Volume 3 is OUT.

Last Sunday was, in fact, as EPIC as promised. It turns out, and we are not surprised, that Phil and Erin Stead are indeed adorable, incredibly sweet, very talented, knowledgeable, and — it begs to be noted — extremely fashionable. Many, many thanks to them for teaching a wonderful workshop on making children’s books. We hope to be seeing a lot more of them in the future. (And I hope I didn’t nerd out too much as I gushed about how much I — and my nieces — love A Sick Day for Amos McGee.)

It’s no secret that book release parties are my favorite nights (and sometimes afternoons and, once, a morning) of the year, and the release of the 826michigan OMNIBUS, Volume 3 was no different. A slew of parents and grandparents and siblings and friends and assorted others (standing room only in the back) gathered to cheer on our latest crop of freshly published writers.

The two best parts of an overall outstanding and quite magical day? First, the unveiling, which looked something like this:

…except it was at least twelve times more magical with the volume up. Second, our student readings. It’s always a real thrill to get to hear students read in their very own voices the stories and poems we’ve been reading and rereading for months now as we prepared this book for print. It was all I could do to not quietly mouth the words off to the side.

Francisco, who’s now a fifth grader, has been coming to 826michigan since he was six, and, since then, his self-proclaimed dream has been to make it into the OMNIBUS. As one of our featured readers, it was immediately apparent that Francisco had been practicing his poem, “Photosynthesis Pizza,” and gave a truly stand-out, impassioned, and very cute reading of it.

It was all I could do NOT to just tackle him when he finished. I told him as much later, as he was leaving, which, truth be told, I think made him a little nervous. But that’s one of the marks of a good writer, right? Almost inciting a tackle? I think so.

And so! The OMNIBUS is out and available for purchase! It is filled with the very best writing from all of our programs for the last year-and-a-half or so. Stop by the Liberty Street Robot Supply & Repair and pick up your copy today, or order one online here. A BIG PART of our publishing program is trying to get the clever and brilliant work of our students out to as wide an audience as possible, so be part of that audience. All proceeds benefit our free student programs.