My husband, Richard, and I just got home from our first-ever home school convention: Home Educators Association of Virginia (HEAV). Let me hasten to add that I felt a bit of a fraud, considering I didn’t home-school my children. In their day, it was barely a thing. In my defense, I did home school my six-year-old grandson for a year during COVID, taught my granddaughters and friends science for a semester, and tutored my ESL son during his undergrad degree. Do those count? Probably barely.
In fact, although I was made to feel very welcome, the signs that I was an outsider were obvious: I “only” have four children, and I didn’t even know who the guy in the booth next to us was! People kept being photographed with him and asking for his autograph, so I guessed he was famous. I decided it would be better not to show my ignorance by enquiring as to who he was.
So why did we go, standing on our feet by our booth (on cement) for thirteen hours on one of the days? The simple answer is to display and sell my books. And sell we did. Not the books we thought would sell: the children’s books about Clemmy, Ireentje, and Microbiology That You Can Do at Home, but the two WWII books: Brave Face and Unforgivable. We were a bit concerned that we would run out!
No doubt the sales were a blessing since they meant we broke even with the cost of the conference (including the hotel fees). But the benefits extended beyond that. Some of the people who stopped and listened to a brief explanation of the contents of Unforgivable and Brave Face wept at the stories. Several who did not purchase on the first stop came back, sometimes with friends. Others promised to “get the books for free” by recommending them to their libraries.
Or then there were the children who gathered around as I read from the books about Clemmy and the kids who sat and read every book while their parents chatted. There was even a little guy who proudly read every title to me, but then told me the books were too long for him to read. I couldn’t resist. I gave him a book so he could practice at home while his parents promised to recommend them to their library.
All in all, the conference was delightful. The organizers, Gil and Lisa, were visible and extremely helpful; the other exhibitors were friendly and interesting; and the families carting around wagon loads of books and children were adorable. So adorable. We will be back.