Yesterday, we had an author visit from Jennifer Holland, author of Unlikely Heroes which she is on tour promoting. She is also the author of Unlikely Friendships and Unlikely Loves and has written for National Geographic.
Jennifer talked about her love for animals, and how she has managed to combine that with her love for writing. Her presentation was very interesting, but it was Rojo the therapy llama, one of the animals she talks about in Unlikely Heroes, who stole the show.
He was incredibly calm in a gym full of excited kids.I guess that is why he is an effective therapy llama.
Too bad he had to leave after the assembly. We could have used him later when the fire alarm went off due to something in the cafeteria’s kitchen. It was raining, of course, and the kids had to wait outside until the fire department checked things out and gave us the OK to go back in. The 4th graders were especially outraged because they had missed their 10 minute morning recess due to the assembly. That morning I told them not to complain because they still got their 20 minute lunch recess. Famous last words. The alarm went off right as that recess started.
A teacher joked that she couldn’t wait to get home to tell her husband, “we had a real fire alarm today. And oh yeah, there was a llama, too.” Definitely, an unlikely day.
booksandbassets 
Animals are always a hit. When I was in the classroom in Oregon, our pony Pickles used to make appearances in first grade at Eagle Creek, and once in Sandy. She would walk down the hall and settle in like she was meant to be there. Once we had a visit by a local capybara. I love Jennifer’s books. She must live in Oregon? Llamas and fire drills…a combination indeed!
Jennifer Holland lives in Maryland- she is doing a West Coast tour to promote her UNLIKELY HEROES book, so we were thrilled to join her with Rojo while she was in Portland! That’s wonderful that you were allowed to share your pony inside with all your students- they must have loved her visits!