On the Nov. 17, I drove to Richmond after my classes to meet one of my favorite authors, Jeff Kinney, and get a few books signed by him. For those of you who are unacquainted with the work of Kinney (and I know there are those who will scoff at my decision to read books which are intended for children, but we'll address that later), he is the author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series and is on tour now in celebration of his most recent release, "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever," which is the ninth book in the series and was released on Nov. 15.
Kinney is on a tour of the east coast and his only stop in the fantastic Commonwealth of Virginia was in Richmond. When one of my friends messaged me over Facebook to inform me of this, there was never a question of whether or not I was going; the question was when I was leaving.
My friend and I left campus at two in the afternoon for the signing event, which was held at the Science Museum of Virginia in Richmond. We arrived in Richmond shortly after three, when the event officially began and Kinney's newest book was available for pick-up.
The event was hosted by "bbgb," an independent children's book store located in Richmond in the old train station, which was converted into a Kinney fan paradise. Outside of the tent, which was erected in order to protect most of us fans from the wind and cold, were snow makers and cardboard cutouts of the characters from the book series. There was a cardboard cutout of the Heffley family, which had a cutout in the middle so fans could take pictures with them.
Each preordered book was accompanied by a bracelet of a color corresponding to the colors of the different Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. The bracelet placed each patron in a line group based on color so that there would not be a massive mob scene to get in line for Kinney to sign books. There was also a three book limit on how many books each person could have signed.
At promptly 4 p.m., a massive tour bus with the cover of Kinney's newest book turned the corner and everyone ran over towards where the bus would come in to park. First off the bus was Kinney's press agent, who went over the bracelet system and the book limit. Next off the bus was Kinney himself. The crowd went absolutely wild as he hopped on the front bumper of the bus and greeted the crowd of easily over seven hundred, approximately five hundred of whom were children, and thanked us for continuing to read and purchase his books and told us that he had a special surprise for us. He gestured behind him to the door of the bus and announced that he had brought the two stars of the movie adaptation of the first Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, Zachary Gordon (who plays Greg Heffley) and Robert Capron (who plays Rowley Jefferson) along with him to sign posters and, once again, the crowd lost control, screaming and shouting.
My friend and I were in the red bracelet group, meaning that we were in the first group to meet Kinney and the young actors. While we were in line, I looked around in awe. Everywhere I looked, children were sitting on the cold ground, sitting on chairs, lying across tables, reading. There was not a single sign of a cell phone or gaming device in the area. The sight of all of these young people reading gave me chills. The mere fact that they would rather spend an afternoon in the cold wind to meet an author and read his new book warmed my heart.
In my mind, I can equate these young people to the Harry Potter generation, that is, the children who grew up reading the Harry Potter series. The idea of reading rather than playing electronic games and the idea of running around in snow created by the imagination of an author rather than sitting in front of the television is a fantastic thought and makes me so very happy.
