Captive Audience.

To practice for upcoming Living Room events, I decided to see if certain parts of the book faired better than others when read aloud. I didn't want to bore my friends with this, so I decided to read excerpts to animals at the zoo. It made sense in my head.

Here's how it went:

The Pygmy Hippo LOVED it. Note, after I was done, a little girl came up to the hippo and held a zoo brochure against the glass. I guess she figured he wanted something else to read on his own.

The Flamingos really didn't care. I could have had a better audience with lawn flamingos.

This Gorilla was awesome and totally came down from his tree to walk over to me. I love an active listener. Another gorilla turned his back on me and ate his poop. It was good to figure out what sort of response I want to have to that.

The Cheetah scared the hell out of me. Let's be honest. I think I read him the dedication page and left.

I put the Lions to sleep.

This guy couldn't be bothered.

My largest audience to date.

The Polar Bear swam over but then that man behind me boxed me out. Ru'.

But hands down, this little guy was the best audience at the whole zoo. He sat up, was attentive, and really enjoyed Geoff Gavett's cover art. I could be making this up, but I'm pretty sure he clapped.