Random Acts of Publicity Week: Wednesday

by Alison Formento

Back to School Night with Desk Stories

Back to School Night is a fun adventure for parents. It’s your opportunity to walk the very halls your kids walk every day and ooh and ahh over autumn leaf art and My Summer Vacation essays. There’s something special about meeting your child’s teacher and squeezing into the desk where your little genius sits each day at school.

For one night, everything is arranged just so for parents to see. The perfectly placed pencils and papers feel a little too slick to believe, but there’s no mistaking the energy that exudes from the small metal, plastic or wooden structure holding all those school supplies. This piece of furniture is where students sit, read, laugh and learn five days a week for an entire school year.

The desk.

Every desk may look the same on the outside, but peek inside and you’ll find…well, big surprises are what you’ll find in Desk Stories by Kevin O’Malley.

Take a moment and look at your own desk. What if your desk talked to you? Or kept a furry creature hidden from view? What if you could crawl into your desk? When Dr. Frankenstein first saw his monster creation stir, he cried, “It’s alive!” Who hasn’t felt that way looking at his or her own cluttered desk?

Kevin O’Malley brought backpacks to life in his laugh-out-loud Backpack Stories. He’s done the same for desks with several hilarious vignettes in Desk Stories. O’Malley’s every desk has mega-personality, inside and out. You’ll never quite look at your own workspace the same way after seeing how desks have evolved over time per the dynamic host Dr. I.C. Clearly. Imagine if desks had not only wheels, but rocket boosters, too! And you can’t help but follow The Incredible Shrinking Supergirl on her journey deep into the desk abyss. What’s does she find? Something scary? A treasure, perhaps? Read Desk Stories and find out. Kevin O’Malley knows that a desk is not just a desk—and you will, too.

Alison Formento is the author of This Tree Counts! and it’s board book companion This Tree, 1,2,3. Her next book These Bees Count! will be published in Spring 2012.