Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Opening:
When my best friend, Moo, came up with the idea for a talent festival on our farm, I considered it one of the worst ideas I'd ever heard in my life.
And I mean ever, even from Moo.
She called it The First Annual Hoot, Holler, Cluck, Howl, Roar, Honk, Chirp, Bark, Meow, Whinny, Neigh, Bray, Oink, Grunt, Quack Minnie and Moo Poetry, Song, and Dance Red Tractor Farm Talent Festival of the Ages.
She asked my opinion.
I told her.
But I didn't say anything in a mean way.
You know how it is when your best friend does or says something you think is silly and then they ask you what you think. Because you love them so much, you can't say, “Are you nuts? That idea is dumber than licking an electric light socket!” No, you can't say it that way. You have to say you don't like it or you don't agree in a way that won't make them mad or (in Moo's case) hurt her feelings. After all, that's what good friends do. So what I said was, “Moo, the title is too long.”
And that was that.
Almost.