I will fully admit that I started writing middle grade fiction, in part, so that I would be cool to my children.

Now, in the pantheon of cool jobs, ‘middle grade fiction author’ is still well below ‘astronaut,’ ‘fireman’ and ‘quarterback,’ but still, it was the best I could do.

And for quite some time, I don’t think my kids necessarily regarded the job as being cool at all.

But that has now changed.

As you may recall from the last post, I finally had the joy of reading one of my own books to my son (who is now old enough for them).  He requested Spy School first, and the good news is that he really, really liked it.

Still, this wasn’t what made me cool.

That happened after we finished it.  My son then expressed regret that he’d have to wait until the sequel came out to read that one.

“Actually,” I said, “You’re the one kid in the entire world who doesn’t have to wait for the sequel to come out to read it.”

I happened to have a copy of the sequel right there.  I’d been planning on proof-reading it.

And so, I’m now reading it to my son.  (And proof-reading as we go.)

My son is enjoying this one too, and getting a great amount of joy that he’s the first kid in the world to read it.  (Although he keeps giving me notes.)

This, to him, is cool.

And frankly, the whole experience is awfully cool to me as well.

Now I just have to keep him away from kids whose fathers are quarterbacks.