First signing for Scars from the Tornado canceled

The long-awaited first signing for Scars from the Tornado: One Year at Joplin East Middle School, is going to have wait a little longer.

I called Jeff Auckerman, book manager at Vintage Stock on the Mall a few minutes ago and canceled the event, which had been scheduled for Saturday afternoon. I will reschedule sometime after Christmas.

The book, which details former East Middle School students' tornado experiences and our first year in a warehouse school, features essays by students and by me and student poems.

Scars was published in March, but due to the problems Joplin R-8 school officials had with the book, which have been written about on this blog numerous times, it and the wonderful writing done by these young people never received the attention it deserved.

For those who do not yet have a copy of the book, it is available locally at Vintage Stock on the Mall, Always Buying Books, and Changing Hands Book Shoppe in Joplin, and at Pat's Books in Carthage. Amazon has them on sale at the moment for $8.60.