Jan Brett and Poultry Show

     On Saturday, October 29th my husband, son, and I left the house at 6:00 AM for Indianapolis.  We went to the state fair grounds to see author Jan Brett and poultry.  We made great time and had 45 minutes to look at the chickens and ducks before Jan's presentation.  Jan shared that she had chickens as a child and has them again.  She brought a few to show at the poultry show.  She brought one of her chickens to the presentation with her.  It was a White Crested Polish.  Jan shared her new book Home For Christmas.  It is about a troll that runs away because he does not want to do his chores.  She shared that she and her husband traveled to Sweden to research her book.  It was there that she decided that Rollo should meet a family of moose instead of reindeer.  It is a wonderful story with beautiful illustrations.  She is currently working on a book about a turtle named Mossy.  Her next book will be a Cinderella story with chickens posing as the main characters.  This book will be set in Russia.  She will travel there for her research. 
     Jan then went on talk to the children there about the importance of using their imaginations.  She suggested that they spend an hour just drawing and being creative.  She then showed us how to draw a White Crested Polish.  It was amazing. 
     We then waited just a short time to get the books we bought autographed.  I, of course, was the most excited.  I was very thankful to Brian for taking Luke's and my picture with Jan Brett. 

     Then we went back to check out the poultry.  Next year will be Luke's first year of regular 4-H.  So we went to check out the different breeds of chickens and ducks.  We were amazed at how many birds were there.  We saw a sign thanking the exhibitors for bringing 10,262 birds (chickens, turkeys, ducks, and geese)!  We did not look at all of the birds.  Luke did decide that he wants to take call ducks.  They are cute little ducks that come in several colors.  He was pretty impressed with the all white ones and the ones that looked like mallards.  He did not really make any decisions on a breed of chicken.  But knows that he wants to show bantams.  

     We had an excellent day!