What do Fred Astaire, old-time baseball players, a Chinese Cinderella, the Greek goddess Iris, Henri Matisse, and Snow White all have in common? They are all subjects of books by authors who visited LREI during our annual Book Week December 3rd through 7th. LREI students met authors who wrote about these and many other characters and subjects, and discussed their work as writers. In many cases, children had the opportunity to compare their own working process with those of professionals, and ask questions about how established authors chose their career paths. Other visitors included illustrators, and LREI parent Laura Galen, editorial director of Nickelodeon magazine. Titles by visiting authors were all available for purchase at the Book Fair, along with a wide selection of other books for children and adults. In addition to the school visits by authors, the grown-up community enjoyed LREI’s annual Literary Evening on December 6, entitled “Kinfolk and Other Strangers.” The authors reading at this event were our own Marthe Jocelyn, Bliss Broyard, Dominic Carter, Porochista Khakpour and A.M. Homes. Those who came were lucky to hear diverse, incisive, heartbreaking and humorous descriptions of how families shape us, for better or worse.