Sometimes it’s good to
hang out with eight year olds. They give you a fresher slant on things,
especially language, and you laugh more too.  On our weekly Monday date, Emma age 8 comes to my house.  We’re up in my office and I ask her if
she ever saw her name in the acknowledgement section of my last two books. I
open the books – “See: Emma.”  She leans over and looks at her name.
Then with a flick of her hand she says, “Oh, there are tons of Emmas.”  I assure her that in the next book I’ll put her whole name.  Later she says
something incredibly wise and I tell her that she has a good head on her
shoulders. She looks at me. “Actually, it’s on my neck.” “Right,” I say, “and
actually that’s kind of a dumb thing to say anyway. What else would you have on
your neck or shoulders.” “Good elbows on your shoulders!” she shouts.  “”Those are good feet on your
shoulders!” I yell back. And so it goes, back and forth, until we’re in tears
with laughter.