Teachers eating crickets at NCTE

I covered this in my roundup of a whirlwind of a trip—six states in ten days. But of the many highlights, this 30-minute event was so fun that I had to spin it off into its own post as well:

At my book signing at the National Council of Teachers of English convention, at least ten teachers ate crickets.

Yes, I brought crickets (three flavors: salt and vinegar, sour cream and onion, bacon and cheese) to NCTE. 

During my book signing on 11/17/17, I displayed them tastefully in three Starbucks oatmeal cups and offered any teacher who ate one a second free book. (Though turns out we didn't have enough, so we instead offered bragging rights.) My editor Nancy Paulsen was my right-hand woman. 

The inspiration for this promotional dare was the title character in The Chupacabra Ate the Candelabra, whose unconventional appetite includes an insect that is even more repellent to the average human: the cucaracha (cockroach).

The hashtag #bugforbook took over Twitter.

A four-part sequence:

This woman agreed to do it...only if I did it with her: 

It was wonderful that one teacher tweeted that he would do anything to get kids reading, and this teacher expressed a similarly wonderful sentiment:

#notreally 

But Nancy and I were pleasantly surprised at how many people were willing. Huge props to these good sports and others we may not have captured.