sky blue, factory-fresh (wall of) crayons from the source, and tears on rock star (author) autographs
every trip to highlights ends in tears.
i struggle to even say b’bye to people because, in three days, we’ve become the best of friends, and because i want to believe that “real life” doesn’t exist on the other side of my 750 mile drive back to south carolina from the pennsylvania farmlands and forests.
this fall’s trip’s tears weren’t (merely) because of g’byes to new bookish friends and writing buddies and author pals, though. it was because of who was there on my way out.
so let’s start at the beginning, shall we?
i left home monday morning to drive part-way to my destination.
then on tuesday, before i finished the rest of my road*trip to the highlights foundation, i made a hallie*necessary stop at the crayola experience in easton, pa.
the security guard asked me, “no kids today?” “no, sir,” i said. “artists need to dream in every color, too.”
when i was eight or nine, my family lived in new jersey, and because it’s the address on the back of the crayon box (and pre-internet), we hopped in the car and drove to easton, pennsylvania. and, after a lunch with a pumpkin ice cream my mom has yet to forget, we somehow managed to get an on-the-floor tour of the crayola crayon factory! (yes, living that mister rogers life although i was probably in purple shorts instead of a red cardigan.)
sadly, the factory itself is no longer open for tours, but crayola has essentially created an interactive children’s museum of color and art for all ages.
the left 3 images: the crayon-wrapping room. then the gift shop: wall of color, colourful plushie heaven, and me— the happy happy tourist. ;)
since kids were back to school, there were only a half-a-handful of moms with their toddlers, a grandma with her granddaughter, and one family of four that looked to be on vacation… but i more often had every room/experience (and bored employee) to myself.*
*in another life, er, a dozen years go or so, i worked at a children’s museum myself— so i half expected busses full of field trip kids at least. but it was nearly empty! next time i’ll go with a buddy so i can sit at the tables and color or do all the clay and activities… but a quiet experience worked out just fine. especially since i’d wanted to wrap aLL THE CRayONs with names of friends & family members! and ended up making a few dozen personalized crayons in the wrapping room. :)
the wall o’ crayola history. i was too anxious to stop and read it all, but i do love a nice evolution of crayon box design.
so hands full of coloring pages (for later, so the solo employee in the “texture” room didn’t have to stare at me when i colored), personalized crayons, markers from the limited edition color vending machines, a few extra tokens for my scrapbook, and a washable dolphin figurine to color and wash and color again later… i explored** all four floors and then made my way to The Gift Shop.
**random fact: my friend V went to the crayola experience at the florida mall and said it was insane (busy and hyper and overstimulating, etc); i imagine that’s because 90%+ of all children in orlando are on vacation. so it really wasn’t So bad to have this place basically to myself.
gotta love oversized props and tables and all things crayon-centric! i melted crayons and made spin art. i melted crayons and made a green and magenta crayon “ring.” i didn’t stop and color my washable dolphin or play with the model magic clay or enjoy the texture plates… but maybe next time i’ll bring a buddy so we can do all the things together!
so: The Gift Shop. tbh, my husband should be v. glad they didn’t have shopping carts.*** there were crayon stuffies. mugs. cups. plates. magnets. jewelry. tees and sweatshirts. socks and funko pops and allllll the colourful magnetic and wearable and house-decorating and coloring things….!!!
***so, as i mentioned, i ran out of arms and hands (i was also carrying my popcorn and souvenir cup from the snack bar— another purchase-ahead add-on ticket i didn’t need, but of course don’t regret. teehee. and at least i had the girl (who was wearing felted cat head earrings) put my popcorn in a bag instead of two paper buckets which would have been IMpOSSiBle to shop with while holding…. so i could have done way more “damage” in The Gift Shop (which: happily: is open to the public without a entrance ticket, so drop by any time to ShOP all the colourful merch!!)
this is the goofy-crayon tin i filled for my nephew. i asked the employee re-filling the Wall of Color, and she told me you can fit more in by laying them on their side than standing them up like candles. ON IT. ;D
i DID totally get (as was my intent, because every high-anxiety introvert likes to know what she’s in for before she goes anywhere, right? and i’d scoured not just the floor plan of the building, but the online shop multiple times already) a VIOLET crayon stuffie. her name is embroidered on the back: both “Violet” and “Vi” which i dunno if that’s spanish or french, BUT the book i was traveling to highlights to that week? the main character’s name is Violet, and she goes by Vi, so i HAD to bring her home with me!!
and the highlight of the ENTIRE “crayola experience?”
The WALL OF COLOR.
i didn’t measure it, but i’d guess it was at least 30 (40? 50?) feet of crayons. and you could pick a tin design and FILL IT WITH ALL THE CRAYON COLORS YOU WanTEd (including limited edition, metallic, and retired colors! eep!!) it was beauuuutifulllllll.
do i want a wall just like this in my studio/house?
but of course.
and now that i’m home, do i occasionally open my v. full crayon tin just for that new crayon scent? obviously.
thankfully, after i set stuff down on the counter, and went back for something… and when the lady was ringing me out… i saw at the Other register the whole reason i NEEDED the gift shop in the first place: the POSTCARDS i’d promised people!
so my second transaction was two dozen of those….
i walked down to the highlights foundation mailbox on the “ol’ dirt road” to mail the two dozen or so postcards before i went home… had to make sure they were home-of-crayola pennsylvania-fresh postmarked-stamped by the post office! :D
so after a few more awkward selfies with my merch and diet coke-filled souvenir crayola cup, admiring the 3-story trompe l’eoiel crayon mural, and trying to explain to spanish-speaking pedestrians what was inside this colourfulbuilding, i left easton, pa for the final leg of my journey to highlights…
all. in.
i’d added a day to my stay at highlights. (it’s SO far! why not enjoy it for another 20 hours?) so tuesday night was uh, me and … and the highlights board members. (who were all very kind, but i wasn’t my bubbly bookish self yet. i was awkward and well… no. that’s the only word for it. i was awkward.)
i looooooove staying in a personal cabin at highlights. i unloaded my car, including the WAY too many books i’d packed and of course didn’t have time to read, and made sure Vi and Theodore were settled until i finally ventured out and could no longer ignore the fact that Other People were there….. also, food time. ;)
alison green myers remembered me (i’ve been to highlights 2x before for other “camps”) and was kind enough to introduce me to people i (accidentally) got too close to not to acknowledge…. but i did read my book at an empty table until fellow-middle-grade-author-there-early stacy arrived, too.
ate dinner outside. it was perfectly lovely. i love dining al fresco, even if i’m not in paris. ;)
(bonus for any highlights visit: THEY FEED YOu ALL the TIME. you eat. you learn. you eat again. then you learn and write and eat again. and all other times you have snacks and coffee and a giant ice cream cooler and an always-chilled soda fridge and conversations and eat some more! and it’s all local farm-to-table cooking and something for every dietary preference and i got to eat vegetarian all week and i’ve never been so full on “camp food” because not only is highlights food edible, it’s friggin’ better than home cooking or even restaurant food…. miracles abound among kid lit people, i tell ya the whats!)
i retired early to my cabin and read and journaled and addressed crayola postcards to friends and fans and patreons and instagram giveaway winners… and slept in my cozy little cabin with my trusty sidekick theodore and my new purple crayon pal violet!
the next day was breakfast… and lunch… and a nap… and then time for the other middle grade author campers to arrive… so WHILE i was sitting on my cabin porch at highlights, reading gianni rodari’s THE GRAMMAR OF FANTASY…
i told you: these cabins are cozy perfection. this was mine for the week: lucky cabin no. 13! not a bad porch to read/write/edit on, either! :)
and then:
THE RED SPORTSCAR drove by.
and because i’m a superfan and instagram does actually for some reason show me ALL of her content, i KNEW who was in that mustang:
the One & ONly Erin Entrada Kelly!!!!*
* nbd (as if!): erin is winner of two newbery medals AND a third newbery honor! what what?! AND a national book award finalist and a cancer survivor and just an all-around amazing human being who cares about books and kids and spooky stuff. :)
bonus: erin brought a friend with her— another author superstar and fellow national book award finalist for young people’s literature, The Laurel Snyder!
they were our two “camp counselors” for the week.
erin and laurel have done this “middle grade authors: a generative retreat” twice before at highlights.
and it was EveryTHinG.
there were no powerpoint presentations. it was conversation and discussion and q&a and all the honesty and good advice you could ever hope for from two people who LOVE what they do: write for children.
two lovely humans who write to tell stories to inspire. to let kids feel seen and not alone.
left: erin entrada kelly. right: laurel snyder. center: me, trying not to be as awkward as i felt on the last day of camp; holding in the tears of joy and gratitude best i could while surrounded by two super-humans doing what we can only aspire to.
by the time more campers were arriving i felt a little more like “highlights hallie”* and not like i had to hide in my cabin… there were appetizers out on the porch before dinner (told you: everyday, they feed you: like the witch fattening up hansel and gretel for a better story) and i sat at laurel’s table…. and erin appeared later and plopped down next to me like it was nOthinG (as if!) and KNEW MY NamE!
*see also: my first visit to highlights 2022. “almost the best version of myself.” blog post here.
as tempting as it is to relay it all to you, i probably shouldn’t go over EVERY conversation and workshop and discussion that happened over the next few days with my new friends and new author rockstar friends…
but here are a few exceptions to keeping it all to myself:
“what if i told you to write BADLY? could you do that? play and free yourself of the requirement of excellence.”
^ laurel’s preaching of PLAY! to remember what it’s like to be in the mindset of the 8-12 year-olds (if it means sitting under the dining room table; making a fort to write/dream/read in; eat whipped cream out of a jar—use muscle memory to go back in time to when YOU were a child. honestly not things i need help remembering to do; i’m still only ten inside after all these years; but always a great reminder.)
sometimes your ending is hidden in the first page.
go back and see what the first words you put down were.
the world moves to quickly! write by hand!
things that inject time into a project ultimately benefit the project.
^ erin’s process: she holds the whole story in her head (like a favourite movie), then, after a year or so thinking about her characters, will write the first three chapters by hand, then type those in. then write three more chapters in her (cheap, spiral-bound) notebook before typing those… and keep going until you have a draft!
laurel’s process: “the pencil scratching on paper makes it sound like when i was little and it didn’t matter.” she goes from her notebooks to laptop to a printed spiral manuscript to which she adds post-it note inserts and then re-types the whole draft!
left: the view from the lodge. no filter. amazing. right: me on thursday, dressing as my parisian self to get in the mindset of my current work-in-progress i was there to mull over/edit/and ask erin and laurel questions about.
knowing that the next day i got to have my 1:1 20-minute session with erin to ask/talk about anything i wanted, i sat on the barn’s back porch and brain-dumped all of my (current) publishing fears.
so i babbled through some of those with her in the lodge lobby when it was my turn on thursday afternoon and her very wise words were:
“don’t try to solve problems that don’t exist yet.”
(yes, erin, but i’m SO good at worrying about them ahead of time… bahahahaha!)
the first scbwi (society of children’s books writers and illustrators) conference i ever went to, i remember one of the speakers showing a slide about “success.” as in, no matter where you are, there’s still someone ahead of you that could be a potential worm of comparison joy-robbing. (manuscript/agent/book deal/national book award/netflix show/THEME Park!)
so i asked erin, who’s won TWO newberry medals and ONE newberry honor etc etc: what’s next? how can you set a new goal when it seems like you’ve achieved everything but the theme park? is that what you want next?
she, so wisely, again, answered:
“i don’t want a goal i can’t control. so my next goal? it’s always challenging myself to write a better book.
all you CAN do is write the best book you can.
so ask yourself:
am i proud of this book?
am i doing it for the right reasons?
i never write a book i EXPECT to win an award. (but it’s okay to keep them coming.)”
and here’s three more random gems from my notetaking for you to do with what you wish:
if you’re struggling in the middle, you have not planted enough seeds for confict.
by the end of the first page there shoudl be something i don’t know. (this means INTRIGUE!)
at some level, storytelling is just storytelling. if i walk into the kitchen where people are hanging out, how do i tell a story to get people to listen? (humor, voice, etc.)
and a list of book titles that came up as “mentor texts,” recommended reading, or were written by some of my new friends that i’ve since collected:
on topics that are hardcore, but the ambiguity lets all kids see and know at the level of their individual understandings of tough topics:
fighting words, by kimberly brubaker bradley
https://bookshop.org/a/5254/9781984815705
the canning season, by polly horvath (one of my fave kid lit authors of all time, btw)
https://bookshop.org/a/5254/9780312535643
louder than hunger, by john schu (he started following me on instagram! what what?!) ;D
https://bookshop.org/a/5254/9781536232523
for world-building and giving the reader the only the info they need at that point in the story:
a wish in the dark, by christina soontornvat (esp. for the details revealed and withheld in the first chapter *chef’s kiss!*)
https://bookshop.org/a/5254/9781536222975
ms. bixby’s last day, by john david anderson (esp. for classroom scenes with lots of characters!)
https://bookshop.org/a/5254/9780062338181
for a flip-through for inspiration, pick up and set down as needed (but don’t get lost or overwhelmed!):
wonderbook, by jeff vandermeer
https://bookshop.org/a/5254/9781419729669
for pacing and time passing:
the world ends in april, by stacy mcAnulty
https://bookshop.org/a/5254/9781524767648
for dialogue and character development:
the screenplay of THE SANDLOT (1993 film)
(another trick: highlight each character’s dialogue in your own manuscript, each in their own color. go through all of X’s lines to make sure they sound like something X would actually say. repeat per character. what does character X notice in the world? are they always referencing 80’s songs? what metaphors do they personally use based on their context/upbringing/passions?)
what you can do with third person POV/omniscient third that feels like FIRST person because you’re swooping in & out:
little fires everywhere, by celeste ng (not a kids’ book, btw!)
https://bookshop.org/a/5254/9780735224315
recommended to me for my current WIP/quest/expectations maybe not met:
coyote sunrise, by dan gemeinhart
https://bookshop.org/a/5254/9781250233615
& particularly applicable to my wip, its sequel:
coyote lost and found, https://bookshop.org/a/5254/9781250292773
probably too intense for me to read, but keeping the reader asking questions and have to keep reading to find out…
the five stages of andrew brawley, by shaun david hutchinson
https://bookshop.org/a/5254/9781481403115
erin & laurel’s recommended resources:
sarah nicolas’ newsletter (useful reading and writing events)
https://sarahnicolas.substack.com/
erin’s workshop mailing list on her website
https://www.erinentradakelly.com/workshops
low-residency writing for young readers MFA at the university of san francisco (erin’s on faculty!)
https://www.usfca.edu/arts-sciences/programs/graduate/writing-young-readers-mfa
the books i’ve read (or at least collected) since the conference by laurel, erin, and new highlights friends:
MY JASPER JUNE, by laurel snyder
https://bookshop.org/a/5254/9780062836632
ORPHAN ISLAND, by laurel snyder
https://bookshop.org/a/5254/9780062443427
(loooved this one and read it before i met laurel irl; particularly loved what she DIDN’t explain but let the reader wonder and imagine for themselves!)
ENDLESSLY EVER AFTER, by laurel snyder, illustrated by dan santat
https://bookshop.org/a/5254/9781452144825
(soooo much fun! it’s a large picturebook that’s a choose-your-own path tale for lots and lots of your own plot twists and endings— which are sometimes as bleak as a real fairy tale.) ;)
THE LAST RESORT, by erin entrada kelly (her latest; it came out the tuesday before i met her! i packed it on this trip for erin to sign, along with my “obnoxious stack of books” for her to autograph, but i didn’t read it until my next trip— to scbwi carolinas in charlotte—where the campus was a lot less haunted than highlights.) ;)
https://bookshop.org/a/5254/9781546132431
bonus: here’s the cover reveal for THE SECOND LIFE OF SNAP, coming in may 2026 from erin!! https://www.instagram.com/p/DP1xwa2ifcm/
BAD CHEERLEADER, by alex thayer
https://bookshop.org/a/5254/9781665955287
(it comes out in november, so i had her sign a highlights bookplate for my copy when it arrives!)
WHERE YOU SEE YOURSELF, by claire forrest
https://bookshop.org/a/5254/9781338813845
(claire read an v. small excerpt from a not-yet-published book of hers on open mic nite and she had me crying within two paragraphs her writing is so good!)
MAYA PLAYS THE PART, by calyssa erb
https://bookshop.org/a/5254/9781773218519
(calyssa was my meal buddy for the week; so kind & helpful to not have to worry who to sit with every -of the many- time(s) they fed us! bonus: her debut novel is about theatre! yay!)
okay. so WHY i LEFT CRYING and not just because i was leaving my NEW friends as we scattered back to all of our states and countries:
the next group that was arriving on campus as the middle grade session participants were leaving?
it was the session for picture book authors and illustrators.
the same highlights workshop i did in 2023. (blog post on that visit and workshop HERE!)
leslie recognized me at the soda fridge as i was grabbing a can of diet coke and filling up my WRITE ON! coffee mug for the road, and i kinda started (actually) crying when i told her: my picture book, the one i wrote and did the first mock-up picture book dummy for when i was at this exact same session two years ago? my AGENT (!) had literally just sent it out on submission that week while i was at highlights! (got the email while i was sitting outside at lunch on wednesday! eep!)
i went over to darcy, the other picture book session instructor, and told her, too. and then i cried harder.
i mean, hello FULL-CIRCLE moment!
the last time i’d been to highlights i didn’t have an agent. and now i had THREE books out on submission to editors! (vashti harrison hadn’t won her caldecott medal for BIG yet, either; but i befriended her at that highlights picture book session, too!)
the mock-up cover for my author-illustrator picture book: GHOST BUNNY. it’s currently out on submission with my agent! yes, it’s the same book i wrote while at highlights back in 2023. :)
anyway.
not all progress, especially in the arts, is an upward climb of a red line on a lame math graph chart.
progress is just doing the next thing.
whether it’s challenging yourself to finish a short story. to write the best book you can. or even write five WORDS (five messy, bad words) that day.
all you can do is keep going.
(the!) erin (entrada! kelly! who knew my name!) assured me it was true:
the ones who make it are the ones who don’t quit.
and for a final funny, this gem of a question erin got from a kid at a recent school visit:
“how many books do you think you’re gonna write before you die?”
not as many as she’d like to, i’m sure.
but her next title will be the best she’s ever written.
as shall the one she writes after that one… and the one after that…
so thank you, crayola.
thank you, highlights.
thank you erin and laurel and all my fellow campers.
thank you for letting me think (and color) and write like the kid that i am.
for the kids: our best hope for a bright and better future.
i can’t wait to come back and cry some more: knowing that i’ve kept going. knowing that i’ve gotten better. knowing there are more stories to tell and more kids to be seen in the books they read.
to learn more about the highlights foundation, and their upcoming online and on campus programs:
to donate to their scholarship fund(s):