The first grade children learned the difference between a published book and a not published book from visiting author, Grace Lin. She engaged the children in the journey an idea takes to become a published book. The children learned about the different tasks necessary in this journey, and about jobs such as the editor, art director, and printer. Ms. Lin made this abstract notion real to the children by sharing her very first book she wrote as a child, which is not published, and compared it to one of her Lin and Ting early reader chapter books which is published. This was a valuable and timely demonstration for our children as they are finishing up and choosing a How-To book for classroom publishing.