I know, I went to Book Expo America and it was super fun. I met cool people, got great books, and hung out with friends. I have nothing to complain about, nothing to be jealous about... oh but I am! I am green with envy about all those blogging buddies who went to the American Library Association conference.
I may also be a little green around the gills from a low-grade stomach bug, but that’s another story.
Anyway, I was following Abby’s excitement on Twitter, which was a little like being at the conference and a little like listening in on a great phone call. She summed it up nicely with a similar feeling of glee. My favorite description was that after getting the ARC of Catching Fire, the “day was pretty much made already, and everything else was gravy. (If gravy was made of AWESOME, that is!)”
Following Liz on Twitter gave me more of the sense that the conference was work. Not that I don’t know that the Lizgirl can party like a rock star, but someone needed to remind me of the professional development side. Today Liz discusses in depth the issues surrounding Modernizing Selected List Portfolio, a.k.a. “Best Books for Young Adults List Is Like So Last Year.”
Travis took me on a journey through Part One, which included a sighting of the actual new Mo Willems book — and then hit me with Part Two, which included a report of chatting with Judy Blume at the Newbery Dinner. I hate Travis. (Kidding.)
There were so many posts from Betsy Bird that I gave up evaluating them on the basis of which made me most wish to be her. The Caldecott music video? The Kennedy vs. Gaiman Newbery Rumble videos? Oh, I know, the I-Wish-I-Could-Wear-That-Dress photo series.
But the one who puts me over the top in my green-with-envyness is Susan at Booklights, who describes talking to Neil Gaiman at length because she didn’t realize how totally MegaStar he is. And then there are all the photos of her with these amazing people — including Mr. Gaiman. Lady, you rule.
I am hoping to hear more about the book blogging session, which featured the interesting and amusing John Green. If you have some info from that session — particularly what discussion there may have been on blogs in children’s and teen literature — please write up a post. Or lend a few sentences here in the comments. Or both.
Cheer up because ALA conference is in Washington DC next year!
Look at it this way, Pam. Think of all the people who will be envying the KidLit conference participants in a few months. OK, we may not have quite the same pool of celebrities - but we are sure to be surrounded by friends.
Wow, I sure used a lot of exclamation points in those Tweets. Glad someone was reading them! :)
Having missed both BEA and ALA this year, I was green from my head to my toes. I'm glad everyone else had so much fun though. Now I have to figure out how I can possibly make it to DC so I don't have a trifecta of conference envy in 09.
Pam-I sat in on the blogging panel and thought it was great. There really wasn't much said about kid and YA blogs, which made me sad, and I wish more had been said about the relationship bloggers and librarians can have. But it was all very pro-blogging and the panel talked about how they like the immediacy of blogs and how they are great to look at because you can have info right away, where review journals take awhile to publish. They also like that blogs are more personal. They mentioned that blogs are becoming a new authority which I liked because I think they can be super helpful!
I also liked that John Green talked about author's being online more and interacting with readers and said "they're not going to read my books if I don't reach out to them." He also mentioned he now has a better understanding of his audience because of his online interactions with them.
That's about it from my notes. I thought it was a great springboard topic, but since I already blog, I'd like to see a session on how blogs and libraries can work together.