There were also people dressed up as characters (such as myself and Liza). This year the characters were Maizy Mouse, Madeline, the Stinky Cheese Man, Winnie-the-Pooh, and Clifford the Big Red Dog. It was great fun. I had signed up to volunteer at the book fair with Mr. Trembly because he had received an e-mail from Susannah, the coordinator of the book fair, telling Mr. Trembly that it would be appreciated if he brought along two volunteers for the book fair when he went there to volunteer himself.

I arrived at the Bishop Center at one o'clock in the afternoon, first Mr. Trembly gave me a camera, a red pinny that said Connecticut Children's Book Fair, and a sign to pin on the shirt that said Photos with Characters; $2.00. I was to be a "photographer" even though I personally can’t tell the difference between the camera lenses or the camera flash.

Meanwhile, Liza was dressed up as the Stinky Cheese Man. I was told to follow characters around and if anyone who did not bring their own camera wanted a picture with one of the characters then I would take it, at the fee of $2.00, of course (the film cost $2.00 for each picture so consider this a non-profit organization).

At first, it was rather odd for me because I felt as if I was stalking the characters and people gave me looks that clearly said, "Are you nuts? Two dollars for a picture?" when I asked them if their kids would like pictures with characters. Eventually, I shut my mouth and just followed characters around and people who actually wanted pictures would ask me to take them. It was pretty easy, except when I accidentally touched a picture as it was coming out of the Polaroid and ruined it and the grandmother demanded a refund or an "exchange". Otherwise, I was the greatest photographer that ever walked the earth.

Things got even better as I discovered the snack lounge. There, chips, donuts, bagels, grinders, and drinks were put out for the volunteers. I got to rest, and then I took my camera and went back to taking pictures. Somewhere between two and three o'clock I realized Liza was there as a character. At the time of my discovery, she was dressed as Madeline and people were commenting about how this Madeline (meaning Liza) didn't have hairy legs. (The previous person in the Madeline costume was Ross, a guy obviously, and had extremely hairy legs that could be seen through the white panty hoses the Madeline costume came with.) Then, as I was going up to the lounge for another snack, I met Liza in the elevator, and she took off her Madeline head. I was very surprised. I think the exact words out of my mouth was, "YOU!?" And then Liza responded with, "It's hot in that head."

We headed to the lounge together and she offered me her Madeline costume. I accepted, feeling very honored to be able to dress up as a character and be stalked instead of stalking the other characters. Changing into the Madeline costume was quite a job though.

First, I had to put on white panty-hose, and then the Madeline dress/blazer, and huge high heels (God knows how Liza had survived in them), and finally, the much dreaded…Madeline head. The head weighed about six pounds, and had mesh holes in the eyes that you could see through. I walked around as Madeline, thoroughly enjoying myself. It’s fun to have little kids throw themselves at you and yell, "Madeline! I watch your show everyday!" rather than walking around having mothers glare at you for that ridiculous price.

Afterwards, Liza wanted to be Madeline again, so I got out and changed into the Stinky Cheese Man costume. The Stinky Cheese Man was a much different experience than Madeline. The Stinky Cheese Man costume was a zip-up suit with a yard long head sporting a piece of fake bacon for the mouth and two olives for the eyes. I walked around in this costume for about two minutes when Liza pointed at the clock that said 4:00 P.M. Time for our parents to come! We dashed upstairs, changed into our regular clothes and hurried back downstairs to meet our parents.

The Connecticut Children's Book Fair was extremely fun and a great experience. Liza and I both plan on doing it again next year.