And of course, the highlight was the actual "launching" of a stuffed bear into the crowd (didn't want to take any eyes out with a real book), with the catcher of the bear receiving a free book in addition to getting to keep the bear. (thank you, Dan Hanna, for the launching inspiration).
And then, to keep the magic of my launch weekend going, this morning I opened my email to find that Blackberry Banquet received a lovely review on Stories for Children Magazine. If you haven't seen it before, please check it out! It's a great online magazine for kids that has editors with impeccable taste in books ;-).
Thanks again to those who could attend the launch and a HUGE BEAR HUG to those who contributed to the Women's Center book donation drive. I think there will be a few berry happy kids thanks to the generosity of others.