Do you know who Paddington is?

Well let me tell you a little something about this bear that you may or may not know...his name is Paddington and he is from a country known as Peru (disclaimer: I'm from Peru too!!!). His realy name is revealed in one of the books as Pastuso.

Originally Paddington was supposed to be from Africa, but there are no bears in Africa so his origination in the book was changed to Peru. He traveled on a boat all the way to London. He was adopted by a friendly family and got into a lot of mischief.

Well he will be 59 years old in 3 days! The book has been translated into 30 languages (I wish I knew 30 languages.) It has sold over 30 million copies worldwide. The conception of the book is somewhat similar to mine in terms of it was an unexpected book. Michael Bond, the writer, went into the Paddington Station in London, saw a teddy bear as he looked for a gift for his wife. The bear looked a bit shaby and lonely so he decided to write a book. In ten days...Boom! There it was! My book, "3,585 Miles to be an American Girl" came out of nowhere too. I was actually in the middle of writing a parent involvement book (YEP! I have another book in the works) when my early memories of relocating to the United States surfaced once again. It was the middle of this summer, 2017, and look at the progres we've made. I was done writing it within a month. It's October and the illustrations (by Demitrius Bullock) are almost complete. The book will be ready to share soon enough. It goes to show you that some things are best unplanned.

As I think about the shabby, marmalade eating bear I think about a few things we have in common. First of all, he is always pretty happy and kind. I think that most of the time, I am pretty happy and kind. Then there are those times that as a teacher or administrator you have to give a kid the "look". Well Paddington inflicts hard stares on those who incur his disapproval in his stories. Last but not least, this cute little bear is always trying so hard to get things right. I'm that way for sure, I always want to do the right thing. I try hard each day to get it right. After all, my attitude is all I can really control.