Who doesn’t wonder, with just a smidgeon of childish curiosity, about the fickle and pervasive existence of the common cold? Leave it up to a kid to ask, with no apparent guile or shame, where his cold went when it went away. We need children to utter the things that we’re too adult to say, like “Why is there no end to numbers?” and “How does the Moon follow us home in the car?” both heard from beloved three-year-olds I’ve known. So, in her new picture book for children (and for some of us childish adults as well), Molly Rausch poses the existential question as it might sound coming out of the mouth of a little boy. My Cold Went on Vacation is an imaginative and humorous musing that, at the same time as it entertains, reminds us how literally children think about things. What does it really mean to “catch” a cold? Why is a fever hot? Do whales sneeze? Do bugs cough?

Rausch’s character ponders such things while imagining scenarios of his life-sized cold riding on the bus, sitting at the airport, enjoying adventures on a worldwide expedition before it returns to his own household again. With the help of Nora Krug’s not-too-precious illustrations, readers of all ages can expand their cold-consciousness to visualize a virus traveling far and wide, which could have more serious implications if you extrapolate the information to world health proportions. Kids extrapolate all the time. And indeed, the whole genre of children’s literature holds the potential of answering some of life’s most pressing juvenile questions, or at least voicing them out loud.

Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that neither Rausch nor Krug has children; in fact, the whole concept came about when they were both sick and joking around about their colds, and they decided, “Hey, this would make a neat book.” And it has. In the adept hands of an artist – two artists, as both are visual artists by trade – the very psyche of a child can be touched with humor, passion, pathos, straight-out facts and, perhaps most importantly, with the idea that curiosity and wonderment are allowed. Permission is granted to think about things. Silliness is encouraged, especially when it’s accompanied by speculation. No question is too dumb, and no answer is entirely wrong.

Bring your kids to Inquiring Minds in New Paltz on Friday, April 22 at 7 p.m., when Rausch – who writes, paints, builds treehouses and owns 18 typewriters – will read from My Cold Went on Vacation and may be enticed to talk about other childish things. Rausch will also be at the Storytime Project at Elting Memorial Library in New Paltz on Saturday, April 23 from 2 to 3 p.m.



Also at Inquiring Minds in New Paltz:



Saturday, April 30 at 7 p.m. – Richard Klin, author of Something to Say, will read and sign his collection of the fusion of art and politics in America, commentaries by 12 creative forces: Howard Zinn, Pete Seeger, Yoko Ono, Ron Nyswaner, Maysoon Zayid, Quincy Troupe, Freddy Rodriguez, Gini Reticker, Jen Sorensen, Sheryl Oring, Jacqueline Woodson, Didi Emmons, John Yau, Franklin Stein and Alicia Svigals.



At Bard:

Monday, April 4 at 2:30 p.m. in in Weis Cinema in the Bertelsmann Campus Center--Benjamin Hale, the exciting new author of The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore and winner of the Michener-Copernicus Award, will read from his work. Hale will be introduced by novelist and Bard literature professor Bradford Morrow. The reading, presented as part of Morrow’s New Directions in Contemporary Fiction course, is free and open to the public.

At Barnes & Noble in Poughkeepsie:



Saturday, April 16 at 2 p.m. – Children’s book author (and family columnist for the Poughkeepsie Journal) Karen Kaufman Orloff will read and sign her new book Talk, Oscar, Please! a tale that captures the voice of a longing child and the devoted bond between a child and his dog.



At the Golden Notebook in Woodstock:



Sunday, April 17 at 6 p.m. – Poet Barbara Blatner will read from The Still Position: A Verse Memoir of My Mother’s Death. Refreshments will be served.



Saturday, April 30 at 3 p.m. at the Kleinert/James Art Center – Meet Anne Nelson, author, teacher at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and member of the Council on Foreign Relations, who will read from and discuss Red Orchestra: The Story of the Berlin Underground and the Circle of Friends Who Resisted Hitler. The “Rote Kapelle” (Red Orchestra) was the Gestapo’s name for an intrepid band of German artists, intellectuals and bureaucrats (almost half of them women) who mounted domestic resistance to the Nazi regime.



At Inquiring Minds in Saugerties:



Sunday, April 3 at 4 p.m. – JoAnne Sullam will be reading from her new children’s book Little Puppy & the Mystery of “The Doody in the Hallway.”



Friday, April 29 at 7 p.m. – J. W. Baccaro will be reading from his new book Prophecy of the Guardian.



At Mirabai in Woodstock:



Saturday and Sunday, April 9 and 10 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. – Join Dr. Gerald Epstein, one of the foremost practitioners of integrative health care for healing and transformation, for a two-day workshop. The author of Healing into Immortality, Healing Visualizations and Climbing Jacob’s Ladder will conduct two days of exploration titled “Everlasting Life: Love Trumps Death.” The cost is $195 if registered and prepaid by April 7, $225 if registering after the 7th.



Saturday, April 16 at 4 p.m. – Author Phillip Goldberg presents his book American Veda: From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation – How Indian Spirituality Changed the West. A comprehensive look at “the once and future religion,” American Veda is a compelling picture of its remarkable East-to-West transmission, wherein “physicians and therapists routinely recommend meditation, words like karma and mantra are part of our everyday vocabulary and yoga studios are as ubiquitous as Starbucks.” Goldberg will also appear on Friday, April 15 at 8 p.m. at Euphoria Yoga at 99 Tinker Street. The suggested donation at each reading/signing is $10.



At Oblong Books in Millerton:



Monday, April 11 at 5 p.m. – Erin Hunter, author of the extremely popular Warriors series, is coming to Oblong! Erin will be speaking about her books and the writing process and signing copies of her books. The latest book in the series is Warriors: Omen of the Stars #4: Sign of the Moon. You must RSVP for this event by calling (518) 789-3797 or e-mailing the store at rsvp@oblongbooks.com.



At Oblong Books in Rhinebeck:



Saturday, April 2 from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. – Come celebrate International Children’s Book Day at the Grand Opening of Oblong Jr.! The newly created children’s section and the completely renovated and reorganized store will be abuzz with excitement, including a special storytime at 11 a.m. with Stephen Savage, author of Where’s Walrus? recommended for kids ages 2 to 6 years.



Sunday, April 10 at 4 p.m. – Come to a discussion and signing with Dr. Loren Fishman, author of Yoga for Osteoporosis, a comprehensive, user-friendly medical yoga program designed for the management and prevention of osteoporosis, with more than 400 illustrations.



Saturday, April 16 at 7:30 p.m. – Not one but two authors will be in-house for a reading and signing. Meet Emma Straub, author of Other People We Married: Stories and Emily St. John Mandel, author of The Singer’s Gun. Both books are available in paperback.



Thursday, April 21 at 7:30 p.m. – As a part of the Chinua Achebe Center’s Africa Week, author Nnedi Okorafor presents her new young adult novel Akata Witch.



Saturday, April 30 at 7:30 p.m. – Film director and author John Sayles presents A Moment in the Sun. Spanning five years and half-a-dozen countries, Sayles’s latest novel is a story as big as its subject: history rediscovered through the lives of the people who made it happen. Sayles’s previous novels include Pride of the Bimbos, Los Gusanos and the National Book Award-nominated Union Dues. He has directed 17 feature films, including Matewan, Lone Star and Eight Men Out, and received two Academy Award nominations.



At Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie:



Friday, April 8 at noon in the North Lounge of the Ritz Library – Meet Joyce Hinnefeld, former DCC faculty member and professor in the English Department at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, who will read excerpts from her two recently published novels, In Hovering Flight and Stranger Here Below. The first novel explores the lives and passions of an avid environmentalist and her ornithologist husband in southeastern Pennsylvania’s Bucks County. The second tracks the lives of three generations of women in two important historical communities in central Kentucky.