We don’t like to hear those two words in the same sentence. Monday I visited a school in my home town in Iowa. I did my usual presentations-first to a lively group of 3-6 year olds, then to grades 2-4 and finally 5-6th graders. I shared my author journey, did some magic tricks, had students act out a story we created together and read my newest book, Claire’s Hair, before signing books for students. In between the first 2 sessions, a girl came up to me and told me her five year old brother had cancer and wasn’t in school because he was going through yet another round of chemo and it was a particular rough patch for him. She said her mother had bought Claire’s Hair because it was about a boy who had lost his hair, like her brother had after his cancer treatments. I signed her book and, since my book is about how Claire gets a big hairy idea to bring the laughter back to her friend, I asked what made her brother laugh. She giggled and said, “a whoopie cushion!”  Ahhh. Kids and laughter. It’s the best medicine.