So, what’s the most fun thing to do while waiting for your own ARCs to be available? Go to an awesome event hosted by a local indie bookseller where kids are pre-reading and reviewing other people’s ARCs!

A kid speaks to a packed audience at Porter Square Books about the awesomeness of the Fresh Ink program.

You heard right: KIDS review the books. Kudos to Porter Square Books of Cambridge, MA for hosting this fantastic program where kids read books before they’re available in stores (Advanced Reader Copies or ARCs), and write a 100-word review. Their reviews are then taped to the shelves to guide the reading of their peers. And, if their review is picked, they get a gift certificate to the store so they can get themselves more books. As one Fresh Ink-er eloquently put it: “What’s not to love?”

M.T. Anderson speaks at the Fresh Ink Awards

Funny story of the night award goes to  M.T. Anderson, who told the story of his oddest fan letter. That letter came from a (very annoyed) governor of Delaware who’s address Mr. Anderson used in his book Jasper Dash and the Flame Pits of Delaware… as the contact address to which readers should address any “factual inaccuracies.” Turns out there aren’t that many flame pits in Delaware and the governor was getting a lot of mail!

The Fresh Ink Awards event was a bubbly mix of enthusiasm and polysyllabic words from seriously book-loving kids! A big thanks to everyone involved for a great evening!