Gratitude.

Every time an author writes back to an Angel Potato we cheer and clap and are happy.
I wish I could show you all the moment a kid opens an email and it's from a real writer.
Smiles and shiny eyes and other kids scooting around craning their necks to see.
Sometimes kids like to share; other times they just like the cheering and happy part, and they hold the words of these authors close, like lights they want to protect from getting blown out, and I want to tell them these are words; they are forever, and they are to you.
Last week I learned that several authors had written about the Angel Potatoes.
I sat with my jaw dropped and my heart full and I couldn't wait to show the kids.
Andrew Smith wrote a post titled 

on being angelic, and simultaneously, edible and tuber-like

This is, hands-down, one of the best titles for a blog post in the history of the world.
I read it and read it and read it.
And A.S. King wrote a One Hour Blog, and she talks about all this cool stuff that she is doing--and there is a picture that defines the word joy--you'll know it when you see it-- and towards the end she discusses the Revolution and the Angel Potatoes in her own inimitable way.
I read it and read it and read it.
And Denise Jaden posted an email and a student's poster in a post called "From My Mailbox." It is so cool that she did this.
I read it and read it and read it.
So the next day we took some time and we looked at all the cool buzz about the Angel Potatoes and for several minutes at several moments my classroom was completely silent.
This would have been unnerving, except I totally understood, because I had to read it all many times for the enormity of how awesome all of this is to sink in.
And their happiness and amazement and comments have fueled me for days.
Days.