Female Speaker: From the Library of Congress, in Washington, D.C.
[silence]
John Cole: Good morning, everyone, good morning.
Audience: Good morning, Mr. Cole.
John Cole: Thank you for attending this very special occasion.
We're going to be featuring our National Ambassador
for Young People's Literature, but before we introducte Jon Scieszka,
we're going to talk for just a minute or two about the program,
and the Library of Congress.   We're so happy to have you here.
We're now trying to work hard to promote children's reading,
young people's reading, and we have the National Ambassador
program going.
It's a project of the Center for the Book -- which I am in charge of,
which is the reading promotion arm of the Library of Congress --
and the Children's Book Council.
And together, with lead sponsorship from Cheerios --
and we have bookmarks from Cheerios, for you to take away today,
with some reading tips from our National Ambassador.
We also have support from publishers of books for young people,
so this is a cooperative project to try to make reading more fun,
and to have a National Ambassador who personifies this
as he travels around the country.
We have special guest today from a school,
I think it's called Brent Elementary School, is anyone here from Brent?
All right, how about a cheer from Brent.
We're very happy to have you here.   And with the help of the Library
of Congress' educational outreach project,
we're going to have a wonderful morning.
It's my pleasure, now, to introduce Librarian
of Congress, Dr. James Billington.
He is only the 13th person to be the Librarian of Congress.
He has been a staunch supporter of the Center for the Book,
and this reading outreach for young people.
We have special programs at the Library
that he's helped us with in many, many ways.
Today's program is really a perfect example of his visionary approach
to using the Library's resources and sharing them
with Americans everywhere.
Ladies and gentlemen, Dr. James Billington.
[applause]
James Billington: Thank you very much, John.
And welcome to our first official visit
from the first National Ambassador
for Young People's Literature, Jon Scieszka.
We also welcome the teachers and students
from Brent Elementary School in Washington,
and our other guests here.
It's great to have you all here, this is what it's all about.
And before we begin the main part of our program, I want to announce
that through the Center for the Book, which John Cole has headed
so dynamically and faithfully for so many years,
the Library has just entered into a partnership with the Read It Loud!
Campaign. The goal of this campaign is to inspire as many parents
or caregivers as possible, maybe even five million,
to read daily to children over the next five years.
I have to say, I was just aked on television,
interviewing with Laura Bush, who's the patron and originator
of our Book Festival that will be unfolding in the next few days --
what was -- someone from the Weekly Reader, which maybe you all read,
asked what had been the most important moment about reading
in my life, and I said it was when my father read to me
when I was a young person.
Usually, when I would stay up a little later at night than I should,
he said, "Okay, if you're going to stay up later,
I'm going to read to you."
So reading aloud can make a difference for everybody.
We're fortunate to have the founder of this exciting campaign,
Wally Amos, here with us today.
Wally has devoted his life to children's literacy, he's an avid
and enthusiastic advocate for the importance of reading for people
of all ages, reading aloud.   Ladies and gentlemen, Wally Amos.
[applause]   Wally Amos: Thank you.
Thank you Dr. Billington, but may I call you Jim?
I don't want to be so formal, you know.
I've known him for a little while, and he's a very prestigious person,
and you don't want to always just throw around his first name,
but I feel that I know him well enough to call him Jim.
Well thank you very much, Jim, it's a pleasure to be here,
and it is a pleasure to be in partnership
with the Library of Congress.
Our goal is to get five million families reading to their child
for at least ten minutes a day, from birth through six years old.
If that happens, there are wonderful things
that will happen to that child.
Child will grow up to develop language skills,
improve his listening comprehension, builds her vocabulary.
It creates a bond between the child and the reader.
We have a lot of young people here.   Are you guys readers?
Children in Audience: Yes.   Wally Amos: Yes, yes.
How many parents read to you?
How many have parents that read to you?
Look at that, a wonderful showing of hands.
They're wonderful readers because their parents read to them.
Reading aloud to a child creates a wonderful child,
creates a smart child, creates an intelligent child, creates a child
with values, creates a child
that will ultimately know the difference between right or wrong.
But reading aloud also, it is fun, it is fun for everyone.
It creates a bond between the child and the reader,
it builds strong families, it makes you a better parent.
So we're looking forward
to spreading this campaign throughout the United States,
and we're all going to have fun, and we're going to make sure
that America is a nation that reads.   God bless you all.
You young people, keep reading.   Read it loud!
Read it loud!   Let's everybody say, "Read it loud."
Wally Amos and Audience: Read it loud!
Wally Amos: Ta-da!   [fake trumpet sound]
[applause]   James Billington: That's wonderful.
Thank you, Wally, for all you do in this regard.
We'll now turn this program over to Jon Scieszka, whom we welcome
as our first National Ambassador for Young People's Literature.
Jon is the author of such wickedly funny books
as The Stinky Cheese Man, I don't know if you've hit that yet.
[laughter] And other -- of course, the rest of it is,
And Other Stupid Fairy Tales.
[laughter] The True Story of the Three Little Pigs,
if you want to know the true story.
The Trucktown Series, and hot off the presses is his new book,
Knucklehead.
[laughter] Now, like Wally, he's a strong voice for the importance
of reading to young people, especially boys.
He's very keen on that.
His Guys Read Web site and program were created especially
to address this need.
So Jon, it is my privilege and honor to present you
with the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature Medal,
to honor the work you are doing to promote literacy
and reading among young people.
Thank you for being here today, you're all witnesses
to this special presentation to this very special person.
We're all looking forward to asking you a lot of questions.
This is the guy who can answer them,
particularly when he gets this magic medal --
[laughter] Jon Scieszka: No!
James Billington: I don't know -- this is not stinky cheese,
this is a real, real medal -- Jon Scieszka: Nice!
James Billington: -- and we thank you so much for all your work.
[applause]
Jon Scieszka: Oh, thank you, Dr. Billington.
James Billington: These are good people.
[laughter and applause]
Jon Scieszka: Michael Phelps, come on.
Wow. Do you like it, John?   John Cole: I like it, Jon.
Jon Scieszka: Is that good?
[laughter] Thank you, Dr. Billington.
I'm going to wear this for the next year and a half.
Male Speaker: How heavy is it?   Jon Scieszka: Very heavy.
[laughter] Here, wait, I think I got to get it just right.
Oh man, look at that.   I'm going to Beijing.
[laughter] Might be a little late, though, huh?
How's it look?   [applause]
[laughs] Wow.
Well, thanks to the Library of Congress,
and thanks to the Children's Book Council who helped do this.
And thanks to Brent Elementary for making all this possible.
[applause]
So I don't know if you guys have heard about this ambassador thing,
but when you're ambassador, you pretty much get
to do whatever you feel like.
[laughter] At least that's the rules I made up.
[laughter] Dr. Billington wasn't quite sure, and John Cole was going
to tell me about the other presents that I asked for,
because I got the medal, but I also wanted a crown,
and some little flags for my car.   [laughter] And a helicopter.
And a tank.
[laughter] Maybe a used tank, it doesn't have to be a brand new one.
And a jet pack.   You've ever seen those?
Children in Audience: Yes.
Jon Scieszka: Like, you just have the controls right here,
and then you whoosh off?
Do you have one of those, like a Library of Congress jet pack?
[laughter] John Cole: Working on it, we're working on it.
Jon Scieszka: They're working on it.
This is a big building, there's a lot of things going on here.
[laughter] Well, I wanted to tell you guys a little bit
about the ambassador thing that's happening,
and the I also brought a sneak peek at the new book.
Nobody else has seen this before, it's not out until next month.
So I figured you're the perfect ones to take a look at it.
Wally Amos: Are you going to read it aloud to us?
Jon Scieszka: I will actually read it aloud.
[laughter] Just because Wally Amos is here.
But that's a thing I love to do.   I love reading aloud.
It makes so much sense.   And that's the fun thing.
I mean, that's what I'm doing as ambassador,
I'm going all around the country and telling people,
"Quit messing around with kids, let them read books they like."
Don't you think that's a good idea?   Children in Audience: Yes.
Jon Scieszka: So, here's a book I think you might like: Knucklehead.
[laughter]   And look, I'm driving the tank.
[laughter]   So this is an autobiography,
which means it's a story I wrote about my own life.
So you guys can do the same thing.
And I also illustrated it, which I think you're going
to be pretty excited about.
Because I usually don't illustrate my books, but take a look at this.
[laughter]   Sweet, huh?
[laughter]
I don't know if you can see those big, chunky,
black pants, but -- [laughs]   [laughter]
I don't think I have any feet, either,
they're just kind of like little stumps.
But the other thing illustrating the book,
is I just took all these pictures that I have from my scrapbook.
Because I grew up with five brothers,
so here's the whole Scieszka family.
Mom, Dad, Jim -- the best looking guy, Jon --
[laughter]   -- Tom, Greg, Brian, Jeff.
So all the stories are illustrated with this.
And I tell stories about how I became a writer.
And I think the first time I became a writer was when my mom always used
to tell us, "Don't wrestle in the living room,
because you're going to break the couch."
And Jim and I would go, "Nah, we won't break it, don't worry."
But one time, he jumped on me in the living room,
so I put him in a headlock and I flipped him over,
hit the couch, and guess what happened.
[laughter]   It broke.
[laughter] So I said, "Oh no, we're in trouble."
We tried to put the legs back up underneath it, so it would hang on,
but it kept falling down.
Finally I said, "Oh, what are we going to do?"
And my brother Jim said, "Don't worry, I'll tell Mom what happened."
I said, "Really?
Okay." So my mom came into the living room,
and guess what: she freaked out.   She went, "Who broke my couch?
This is a brand new couch.   Were you guys wrestling in here?"
And Jim said, "Oh, um, Jon did it."   [laughter]
And I said, "No, I didn't do it, Tom did it."
Tom said, "Nuh-uh, I didn't do it, Greg did it."
Greg said, "Uh-uh, I didn't do it, Brian did it."
Brian said, "Uh-uh, I didn't do it, Jeff did it."
And Jeff was the littlest one, so he couldn't blame anyone.
He just said, "Uh-uh.   Uh -- the dog did it."
[laughter]
So I think that's where I figured out, I should be a writer.
Because if you're a writer, you get to tell the story.
So I got to tell all these stories in here.
I got to tell the story about --
oh, I don't know if I can tell you that one.
[laughter]   Oh, we used to babysit our brothers.
This one's called, "Watch Your Brother,"
because that's what my mom always told us.
She said, "watch your brothers."
And we didn't get paid for babysitting,
we just had to watch them.
So we would watch Greg roll off the couch.
[laughter]
We'd watch Brian dig in the plants and eat the dirt.
[laughter]
And we would watch Jeff lift up the toilet seat and play in the water.
[laughter]
[laughs] Well, one day when we were watching our brothers,
Jeff got stuck under the couch, and we pulled him out, and we stood him
up on the coffee table right next to it, and he saw a cigarette butt,
so he grabbed it and started chewing it.
Children in Audience: Ew.
Jon Scieszka: And he made this really bad face, which Jim
and I thought was really funny.   So we gave him another one.
[laughter]
And he chewed that one, and made a really funny face.
Then we figured out, "Hey, we could charge our friends a dime
to come and watch."   [laughter]
So we charged all our friends a dime to watch Jeff eat cigarette butts,
and we watched our brother and made money.
[laughter]   The end.
[laughter]   He's okay.
Mostly. I think.   [laughter]
And here's another one I think you'll like: sometimes when we had
to babysit our brothers, they kind of look
like wild Indians running around, like this.
So if they were ever too crazy, my brother Jim and I would say,
"All right, you're in trouble now."
And we'd pick up the phone, dial it, and go,
"boop-boop-boop-boop-boop -- Bad Boys home?
Yes? Come and pick them up.   We have two more."
And then we'd hang up the phone.   [laughter]
And then usually you'd hear a fire engine or something, somewhere,
you'd hear the siren go, like "Wooo-wooo," and we said,
"They're coming to get you."   [laughter]
And then the two brothers would run off and go to bed.
I'm going read some of these to the president, tonight,
so maybe you guys could help me picking a good one.
Should I read that one?   No, that one's a little scary.
"Crossing Swords."   Children in Audience: Yeah, yes.
Jon Scieszka: That's a little scary.
[laughs] Or, I do have one about how I learned to read.
Oh, here's a better one, I think you'll like this one.
This one's called, "Sorry, Mom".   See this x-ray?
You know that little bone on the front part
of your collar, the collarbone?
Did you know it only takes seven pounds of pressure to break that?
[laughter]   We didn't know that either.
Not until my brother Greg started playing with us.
Because my mom would always say, "Let Greg play with you."
And we'd go, "No, he's too little."   "Let Greg play with you."
"Aw, he's too gawky."
But finally, we had to let Greg play with us.
And we played a lot of different games.
We played baseball, and basketball, and football.
But we also played some cool games we invented, like slaughterball.
[laughter]
And in slaughterball, you throw the football up in the air,
and whoever catches it, gets slaughtered.
[laughter]
That's a great game, don't you think?
Well one time, Greg caught the ball, and we all jam-piled on him.
And something more than seven pounds must have landed on him,
because we heard something crack.
So we had to take him back to Mom, and say, "Sorry, Mom, we broke him."
Actually, this happened to Greg about four times.
[laughter]
Which is why we have a lot of pictures of him looking like this,
like a pro football player, because he has the cast on,
and he just looks like that.   [laughter]
And that's the end.   [laughter]
[applause]
Well, I was talking to some of these guys earlier,
and the term "knucklehead" comes from my dad.
That's what my dad always used to call us.
He's say, "Who's the knucklehead who put an army man in the toaster?"
[laughter]   That was my brother Jim.
He wanted to make him bend a little bit, and melt him.
[laughter] He was like, "Who's the knucklehead
who left their bicycle behind the car in the middle of the driveway?"
That was Tom.
Or he would say, "Who's the knucklehead took a bite
out of the middle the turkey,
and then smoothed it back over with stuffing?"
[laughter]
We don't know who did that, or I'm not telling.
Wally Amos: That was Jon.
Jon Scieszka: No, we're not telling, Wally!
[laughter] But I thought maybe I'd give you guys a chance
to ask some questions, because I know you're writers and readers.
[break in audio]   -- oh --
[break in audio]
-- was biased, and maybe wrote the story from the wolf's point of view.
I think that came up from growing up with five brothers.
[laughter] Like, because, they always blamed me, so I thought,
"Maybe it wasn't the wolf's fault, he wasn't bad."
Yeah? [low audio] What inspired me to be an author?
I think reading really funny books, because when I grew up I used
to love Green Eggs and Ham, anyone ever read that one, by Dr. Seuss?
Or Go, Dog, Go!, that's a crazy book.
It's all these dogs, they're different colors,
drive around in cars, and then have a party up in a tree.
I said, "I want to do books like that."
[laughter]
Yeah? [low audio] Who was the oldest?
Jim. But who was the smartest?   Me.
[laughter]
That's an excellent question, I'm glad you asked that.
[laughter] Yeah?
[low audio] Oh, yeah, she wondered if I ever told my brothers
that I wanted to be a writer.
You know, I think I thought about that, when I was a little kid,
like in third grade, second grade, because I liked reading books.
But it wasn't until I was in college
that I really thought I would be a writer.
I wanted to be a bunch of other stuff, like a fireman.
I wanted to be a guy who could just sit at home
and watch cartoons all day.
[laughter] I was hoping that would be a job, because that sounded fun.
That didn't happen.
[laughter] Yeah, but eventually, after school, I told them.
And now my brothers have all different kinds of jobs, too.
Yeah? Child Speaker: If I was your brother [unintelligible]
and if you put bologna on my bike, I'd tell your mom or dad.
[laughter]
Jon Scieszka: [Laughs] If he was my brother,
and I put bologna on your what?
[laughter] Child Speaker: On my bike.
Jon Scieszka: Oh, on your bike -- he would tell mom or dad.
You would have fit right in with our family.
[laughter]
You'd be a perfect Scieszka brother, I think.
Yeah? Child Speaker: Have your brothers ever got you
in trouble before?
Jon Scieszka: Have my brothers ever got me in trouble before: yes.
[laughter] Because one time, when we were all wrestling
in the living room again -- we did a lot of wrestling in our house --
like, my dad yelled down the stairs, "What's going on down there?"
He came downstairs, everybody ran, and they left me standing there.
So I said they all did it.   So actually, I got them in trouble.
Yeah? Child Speaker: What do you think was the greatest prank you
ever pulled?
Jon Scieszka: [Laughs] What was the greatest prank we ever pulled --
wow.   [laughter]
There's so many.   One actually very funny one is we --
I don't know where we even learned this, but we discovered,
if you cover the toilet in saran wrap,
like no one notices, it looks clear.
And then when the next person comes into to go to the bathroom,
it goes all over the floor.   Which is a pretty good prank.
I think only a prank on my mom, actually, since she didn't know
who went to the bathroom all over the floor.
[laughter]
Okay, we better ask -- another question, yes?
[laughter] [low audio] What's my favorite book?
[laughter] I also really still love Go, Dog, Go!
[low audio] Yeah?
[low audio] Oh, why do I like writing for kids?
Because they're way smarter than most people.
[laughter] I used to write for adults, but have you ever noticed,
like, a lot of times adults don't pay attention much?
Like, their attention kind of wanders?
And I love writing for kids because I was a teacher for ten years.
I taught first grade for a while, second grade, third --
fifth graders were a little strange.
[laughter] I taught them for one year.
And then sixth, seventh, and eighth graders.
But I always thought they were the best audience.
Yeah? [low audio] Oh, what job do my brothers have?
My older brother Jim is a lawyer, Tom is some kind of management guy,
Greg sells chemicals, I think.
Brian's a principal, an elementary school principal,
and Jeff's an eye doctor.   But who's the nicest?
Child Speaker: You.
[laughter] Jon Scieszka: Good answer.
I love this crowd.   Wally, you got them going.
Yeah? Child Speaker: Who's your favorite author?
Jon Scieszka: Who's my favorite author?
You know, I think I don't have one favorite author,
because I like some authors like Mo Willems, for younger books.
Did you guys ever read Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus?
Children in Audience: Yes.   Jon Scieszka: That's Mo Willems.
I love his stuff.   Mark Twain is good.
I like guys who write funny stuff, so I really like Roald Dahl,
who wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Children in Audience: Oh yeah.   Jon Scieszka: Yeah.
Almost any of the funny guys.
Yeah? Child Speaker: How did you become famous?
[laughter] Jon Scieszkas: How did I become famous?
I should have done like Wally, just put it in my name.
[laughter] But it didn't work it Scieszka so good, like Shhezz --
Shhezzkk -- like, people can't even say the name.
I think it was all through the books.
It was really kind of fun that people got to notice things
like The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, and teachers read
that to their classes everywhere.   Or, I think, just people loved
to say the words, like Stinky Cheese Man.
That's a good way to get famous.   Yeah?
[low audio]
What advice would I give to a person who wants to be a famous author?
Read a bunch of stuff, like read everything you can.
That's what I did, I started just by reading.
And then, when I started writing, I would just copy my favorite writers.
So for a while, I wrote all spooky stories,
when I was reading spooky stories.
And then, when I read adventure stories,
everything was an adventure, I always had a dog running
through the snow, like Jack London stories.
[laughter] Now, I just write Jon Scieszka stories.
Yeah? Child Speaker: Do you have a role model?
Jon Scieszka: Do I have a role model?
Wally. [laughter] I just found him.   Wally Amos: No, get another.
[laughter] Jon Scieszka: Get another one, he says.
No, you know what, I think I have a couple.
One was definitely my dad, because I just loved that my dad, like,
did his job, and then still have time to play around with us
and read books with us, show us how to do stuff,
even though we were really knuckleheads.
[laughter] Like, we drove him crazy, but he still hung out with us.
That's a great question.   Yeah?
[low audio]
How did I feel when I wrote my first book?
I thought that was spectacular, and I still feel that way.
That's actually one of the most fun parts
about writing, when you're done.
Like, the thing of actually doing it, it's really hard to do.
But when you're finished, that's still a great feeling.
Yeah?   [low audio]
My favorite bedtime book -- wow.
Oh you know what, one of my favorites was Kidnapped.
It's this story about a kid who gets stuck with a bunch of pirates.
And it's good, and kind of scary.   Yeah?
[low audio]   Have I ever met my favorite author?
A couple of them, but I usually don't like to meet my authors.
I don't know why, it's kind of weird.
Because sometimes, they're creepy.
[laughter] Not always, because some of them are really nice, right?
Yeah? Child Speaker: Have you ever --
have you and your brothers ever got in trouble, but it was, like,
mostly your fault [unintelligible]?
Jon Scieszka: [Laughs] Have my brothers and I ever got in trouble
where it was mostly my fault, but I got out --
yeah, how did you know, actually?
[laughter] Child Speaker: I was listening when you said [inaudible].
[laughter] Jon Scieszka: Oh yeah, he was listening too closely.
Yeah, that happened a bunch of times.
That's why I get to be the writer.
Yeah? Child Speaker: Do you have a movie?
Jon Scieszka: Oh, have I ever done a movie?
We actually worked on The Stinky Cheese Man as a movie,
for awhile, but I don't know.
We're still kind of working on a couple of things, nothing lately.
Though I'm thinking Knucklehead would be perfect.
[laughter] Or Will Smith.   [laughter] I got lots of ideas.
If you know any people...
Child Speaker: What about Math Curse?
Jon Scieszka: Math Curse would be a weird kind of movie, wouldn't it?
That's a great idea.   You guys are full of them.
Child Speaker: How many books have you written so far?
Jon Scieszka: How many books have I written so far?
I think about 432.
[laughter] They're short books, a lot of them.
And I didn't publish all of them.
Some of them are really bad, and they didn't work out,
so I just threw them back in my closet.
So like one book is called The Sock.
That was about it, it was kind of just about a sock.
[laughter] So I never published that.
But now I think I have almost 35 books published.
John, how many -- do we have time for a couple more questions?
John Cole: Yes, we do.   Five or six questions.
Jon Scieszka: Five or six -- okay, I'll count.
[laughter] Yeah, in the back?   Yeah?
[low audio]
[laughter] Have my brothers tried to gang up on me -- yes, they have.
But you know why it doesn't work with me?
[laughter] I love the line of questioning, here,
we seem to have gone, it's really an exact -- yeah?
Child Speaker: Do you like going -- like, when you go to other places,
stores and grocery shopping, do people notice you?
Jon Scieszka: Oh, that's a great question.
She wondered if, like, when I go grocery shopping
and stuff, do people notice me.   Not so much.
Like, they don't know I'm the guy who wrote the book.
But I think now that I'll walk around with my medal --
[laughter] -- I might get some questions.
Because I live in New York, in Brooklyn, and I got to, like,
the same grocery store every day, kind of thing.
I think it would be cool to walk in with this, and say,
like "I need my cup of coffee free."   [laughter]
"Because I am the ambassador."
Yeah? Child Speaker: Do you ever get the munchies while you're writing?
Jon Scieszka: Do I ever get the munchies while I'm writing something
-- yeah.   Has that happened to you before?
That's one of the hardest things, when you're writing,
like you sit down, and you think of, like, 500 other things you'd like.
So it's like, you want to go to the refrigerator,
you want to get something to drink, you want to check the mail,
sharpen my pencils -- I do that all the time.
Finally, I'm going to get a seat belt, I think, for my chair, though,
just to keep me there, and then I can keep writing.
[laughter] Yeah?
[low audio] Jon Scieszka: That's a great idea.
If I wrote a book titled Crazy People,
who would I have in there as characters?
Well, certainly John Cole --   [laughter]
-- from the Library of Congress.   See, he's crazy!
That's the last question, we can't take any more.
Thanks, guys.   [applause]
No, I think we're good.   John Cole: All right.
Well, now you know why we have a national ambassador who is --
[laughter] -- so smart, he's friendly,
he's got all of those traits, you know, that we all admire.
But what is fun, is that he turns out to be a successful writer
and a very perceptive, smart guy.
And as he's been travelling around the country,
he's been on book trips, you know, he's a very prolific author --
there's a big word for you.
He writes a lot; he's not just bragging,
he's telling you what happens.
Jon Scieszka: But I am the nicest, Jon.
[laughter] John Cole: Well, the publishers are so happy with Jon
that they're sending him around the country on book tours.
And so he's doing a lot of signing, and we've been able
to take advantage of that, because as I said,
when we started the national ambassador --
we've gotten some money together from publishers to get him out,
and to meet people, and go to Children's Book Week --
which now is sponsored by the Children's Book Council,
and it's been moved to May --
and he's here now for the National Book Festival.
And he will be, actually, as he said, he'll be performing
for the first lady and the president.
He also, tomorrow, on the mall, in the "Teens" pavilion,
will be speaking for 30 minutes.
He also will be part of a couple of other programs.
So it's turned out that when we got Jon as our ambassador,
and Robin Adelson -- who is out there somewhere --
and I just look at each other saying, "Wow,
did we ever do a good job with our jury who helped us pick Jon,
because we are getting our money's worth."
Jon Scieszka: [Laughs] John Cole: Do you feel that way, Jon?
Jon Scieszka: I feel that way.
[laughter] John Cole: Do you feel oppressed in any way,
do you think we're taking advantage of you too much?
Jon Scieszka: No, no, I think it's all going to feel better
when the helicopter comes down.   [laughter] With my name on the side.
And Wally can ride, too.   John Cole: Well, wait a minute.
Jon Scieszka: Wait a minute?   He's going to get a helicopter.
No, he's got the keys to the helicopter.
[laughter] It better not say "Air Force One" on it,
because that's somebody else's, I think.
John Cole: Wait a minute, I guess I have the wrong thing.
This looks like a clip-on book light.
Now why would -- Jon Scieszka:
[Laughs] That's a lot like a helicopter, yeah.
[laughter] John Cole: Now why would the ambassador get a clip-on book
light, well, let's see whether we --
I guess it's all to make him a better reader and writer.
Jon Scieszka: Probably.   John Cole: Oh, wait a minute.
Jon Scieszka: Come on, I have one of these already.
John Cole: Well, all right.
If that's the case, I'll bring you a helicopter.
Jon Scieszka: Oh!   [applause and laughter]
John Cole: Now part of the deal was that this is a two-year bargain.
Jon Scieszka: This is a two-year bargain?
John Cole: And we thought we'd start with a small helicopter.
[laughter] And then we'll see if we can find a bigger one
if you continue to do such a great job.
[laughter] Jon Scieszka: Oh...   John Cole: So to go with your medal,
here's a representative helicopter for the ambassador.
[applause]
Jon Scieszka: How about the million dollars I asked for, too?
John Cole: Talk to me next year, okay.
Jon Scieszka: Okay.
[laughter] John Cole: So let's have a round of applause
for our National Ambassador, Jon Scieszka.
[applause]   Jon Scieszka: Wow, thanks guys.
Female Speaker: This has been a presentation
of the Library of Congress.
Visit us, at loc.gov.   [end of transcript]