Michelle Obama gifts 150 Baltimore students tickets to D.C. book tour event

WASHINGTON - Over 100 Baltimore students will be at Capital One Arena Saturday night as guests of former First Lady Michelle Obama as she takes the stage to promote her new book "Becoming."

The Baltimore Sun reports that Obama was contacted by Alicia Wilson with Baltimore nonprofit College Bound Foundation, which provides support and counseling to students who want to attend college.

According to The Sun, Obama asked Wilson how many kids she wanted to bring. "I said 50, and she said dream a little bigger," Wilson told The Sun.

The advisers from the organization reportedly chose the students that would attend the event based on academic merit or thought would benefit from the experience.

The event at Capital One Arena is part of 10-city tour for Obama's memoir "Becoming," which made one of the biggest book debuts for the year with topped 725,000 copies sold.

"Becoming" had the biggest opening of any books in 2018 by Crown's parent company, Penguin Random House. But at least one other book this year, from Simon & Schuster, did start higher: Bob Woodward's "Fear: Trump in the White House" sold around 900,000 copies after one day.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.