Kelly Eddington is a fabulous artist who loves cats and U2. She used to do the Achtoon Baby cartoons for @U2 (where I’m a staff writer), which is how we know each other. Whenever I go to U2 concerts in my @U2 staff t-shirt and tell people my name is Kelley, they go into ecstatic paroxysms over the cartoon, and then I have to tell them No, I’m the other Kelley and watch their little faces crumple, because Kelly E is a genuine @U2 celebrity who can make The Edge out of a pair of pantyhose, and I’m just a writer (grin).
Kelly is also a high-school art teacher, and recently she went to the school library, rounded up an armload of books that hadn’t been checked out in a thousand years, and gave her students the project of designing new book covers. The covers are finished, the books are back in the library, and I’ll bet some of them get checked out now that they’re all dressed up in their pretty new party clothes.
I remember in 7th grade when my friend Susan, always on the cutting edge of style, came into homeroom one day with covers for all her textbooks made from different wrapping papers — tasteful, color-coordinated, and quintessentially cool (Susan was also the first person in our school to figure out that the rigorous uniform dress code said nothing about socks! Within a week, there was an explosion of colored and patterned kneesocks from which the school never really recovered…)
Kelly E has always reminded me of Susan that way. I’ll bet she was cool in 7th grade, and she’s certainly cool now. And what a great idea, putting students and creativity and books all together.
Enjoy your day. I hope there’s a book in it!