I would like to think that I've got the hang of book signings. I come armed with my own Post-its. I know that if I want to buy the new book I need to pay for it before the signing and depending on where the signing is I may want to have cash (ie. anywhere other than a bookstore or an official festival). I've been to signings with big authors. I know that a Margaret Atwood reading and signing will take 2-2.5 hours from the time I show up early to buy the book and claim a seat to the point where my book is signed and I'm out the door. Even the time that my friend and I won a contest where we got to meet Atwood (along with 8 other contest winners) it only took us about 2 hours to meet her, hear her read and get things signed. So when Saturday rolled around I figured that 2 hours was plenty of time to budget in the bookstore to attend a reading and and get two books signed by a popular children's author. Little did I know that I was entering the Gilligan's Island of book signings. I had seriously underestimated the power of Munsch.

The reading was scheduled to start at 11. When my friends called me to ask if I wanted to go with them and their daughter I decided that a Robert Munsch reading was a very good reason to skip my regularly scheduled Saturday morning of sleeping in and lazing around in my pjs. We figured if I got to their place by 10 we'd get there in plenty of time to buy books, establish ourselves with a good viewing location, etc. Ahahahahahaha. Ummm not quite. We got there a bit before 11 and this is what we found.

Yeah. So it looked a few more people also thought it would be a great Saturday morning activity. That's only about half the people that were there. While my friends scoped for a good position (or rather as good as we were going to get) I ran and bought books and then got our ticket for our position in the signing. It said "22" on it. I didn't think much about it at the time. I made my way back through the crowd to my friends. Shortly afterward Munsch was on stage and ready to go. Unfortunately I couldn't see a darned thing. It was a bit disappointing because Robert Munsch is a great performer. He doesn't read his books, he performs them. Luckily the audio was good and we didn't miss a beat.

Now, aside from reading the odd story to a child here and there over the years I haven't read many Robert Munsch books since I was a kid myself. So I was stunned not only to remember the books but to remember how he read them! I must have caught him on TV more than I realized when I was a kid. When he launched into Mortimer I suddenly knew how he was going to read it. It wasn't "Mortimer! Be Quiet!" but it was "Mooortimerrrrrrrrrrr, bbbeeeeeeeeeeeeee quiiiiiiiiiieeeetttttt!" And then Mortimer would sing "Clang clang rattle bing bang gonna make my noise all day..." And then the most astonishing thing happened. Not only did I know the words but I found myself singing along. You have no idea what the combination of not only going to this event but then singing along has done to my reputation as a curmudgeonly single woman who claims to not interact well with children (but I am still doing my best to maintain it because I believe it to be true).

As all good things come to an end after reading more than a half a dozen stories it was time for the book signing to start. It was only then that I realized that the "22" on our ticket meant that we were in GROUP 22. They started off calling the first two groups. And hour later they were at group 6. Two hours later there were on group 14. Have you ever tried keeping one small child and three adults entertained in a bookstore for hours at a time? We read more children's books in those few hours that I've ever read in a single day. More than three hours after the reading was over it was finally our turn to get both Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko, his fabulous illustrator, to sign our books.

More than 4 hours in total. Being in a huge crowd of not only people but oodles of young children. A large crowd of parents doing their best to make sure their kid could see something. Pushing through crowds to get at books. The largest crowd that I have ever seen at a book signing. It was exhausting!

Was it worth it? You bet ya! Any time I want to I can walk over to my book shelf and pull my personalized signed copy of The Paper Bag Princess down and look at it and remember the day I got it signed. You have no idea how despite the crowd and the screaming children and the standing for hours it filled my lit-loving heart with glee that all those people were there because not only did they love the books but their kids loved them too. And that is priceless.

When she's not puttering around her apartment singing "Clang clang rattle bing bang" Contributing Editor Sassymonkey also blogs at Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.