I took myself to the library this morning to get some peace and quiet. I was walking to my favorite carrel, when I happened to glance up at the shelves. There, looking down on me from a in the Maryland Collection, was a book I recognized.

St. Michaels, the Town that (Somehow) Fooled the British is a book we made a few years back at the request of our friends at Artiste Locale, a shop in the quaint tourist town of St. Michaels, Maryland.

The book is a playful send-up of the apocryphal tale of the town’s escape (through a mixture of ingenuity and luck) from the rampaging British hordes during the war of 1812.

I remember how pleased I was when the library asked us for a copy , but I had never sought it out among the stacks and had always wondered where it would be shelved. It is technically a children’s book, but it might also have found a home in humor, or history, or “strange stuff you probably don’t want to waste your time on.” I hadn’t even thought of the “local interest” angle.

Because of this book, we have been asked to present at the Meet the Author event at White Marsh Elementary school next Friday morning. We will be giving two 45-minute presentations, the first to 1st-3rd graders and the second to the 4th and 5th graders. We’re not quite sure what we’re going to say, but I know we’ll have to make some minor adjustments from our usual routine. Robbi, for example, will have to refrain from dropping the F-bomb, a thing she does with surprising impunity when describing the challenges of working with me.