How to use this Page

I admit that my impressions of the National Book Festival were colored by its Mo Factor, but indeed other things were going on during the day.

We started with the author signings, which were chaotic. There were a lot of authors and a lot of people which led to many disorganized and confusing lines. The best thing I can say about the signings is that the authors I saw all stayed past their time to get in as many fans as possible. Jeff Kinney even gave an extra signing after his author session to accommodate the many kids who had come to see him.

Our late start limited our author events. I caught only part of Megan McDonald's talk, really just enough to hear that there is going to be a movie made based on the Judy Moody books but with the character a little bit older. I did see all of the Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi presentation, which was quite entertaining. Holly talked about the idea of the rat king and how it led to the idea for their latest book, The Wyrm King. Along with drawing this Hydra-type character, Tony also took on a cartoon portrait of Holly's cat complete with little cat clothes.

Over at the Teen tent, Patrick Carman talked about The 39 Clues and if a book from the ten book series might be set in China. (Maybe, he winks.) Jeff Kinney was next looking as humble as a world-famous author can be. He talked about his years of work on The Diary of a Wimpy Kid before it came to publication and his own view of himself as writing a cartoon for adults. As he lightly said, "When I come to these things, I don't feel like a real author. I feel like a failed cartoonist." He encouraged the packed tent to cheer loudly for him as he left so that Judy Blume would worry about measuring up.

Judy Blume talked about being shy and imaginative in sixth grade. When she had to give an oral book report that she found it easier to make the whole thing up - title, plot, theme - and she began to realize her calling as a writer. She got a great deal of applause for her advice to teachers encouraging readers with this line, "For God's sakes don't use Accelerated Reader!" She addressed the first day of Banned Books Week by recognizing the difficulty as a writer where you have to be true to your vision and "get that censor off your shoulder and stomp it down." The tent was packed for her talk, and people seemed mesmerized by being in her presence.

Now, my daughter caught one talk that I missed, so here is TeenReader's Rick Riordan Report:

The author of The Lightning Thief gave a book talk (read: hosted a crowded, screaming rally) with people were lining up long before he was scheduled to start. (Kate DiCamillo thought they were her fans). There were crowds. There was rain. And after hours of waiting in line, these people were ready for some flippin' Book Talks! And Rick delivered.

Riordon was brought to the top by the Percy Jackson series. He plans to write a story about the next generation of Half-Blood campers. He's also gonna milk this "gods" thing as much as he can, because some stories about the Egyptian deities are coming out soon. From the tiny excerpt he read, it's going to keep the same humorous style and adventure, as the Percy books, but with a whole new setting. They both sound like definite must-reads.

I really wish I could have concentrated more, but I had to stand during his talk - which I had already been doing for the past hour - and I was suffocating because of all the breathing people in the tent.

I'm all sniffley today, so I'm going to keep it short. I'm very excited about going to National Book Festival this Saturday, which I talk about at Booklights. I'm sure I'll be over this cold by then, because I absolutely have to go. I've worked out my schedule in advance, but I had to make some very tough decisions. The Jeff Kinney signing or the Kadir Nelson reading? The signing for Judy Blume or Holly Black? The author session of Mo Willems or Rick Riordan?

Ah! Gotcha there! Mo Willems, definitely. Though I may send TeenReader across the yard to Rick Riordan.

If you're going, look for me at:

PBS KIDS Pavilion
(I'll go around noonish, but there are readings, activities, and character greetings all day.)

Author Signings
12:30-1:30 Judy Blume, Holly Black & Tony DiTerlizzi, Mo Willems, and Jeff Kinney (1-2:00)

Children's Tent
1:20-1:50 Kadir Nelson
1:55-2:25 Megan McDonald
2:30-3:00 Holy Black & Tony DiTerlizzi
3:00-3:30 Mo Willems

Teens and Children's Tent
3:15-3:45 Rick Riordan
3:50-4:20 Patrick Carman
4:25 -4:55 Jeff Kinney
5:00-5:30 Judy Blume

I may be the lamest person alive for skipping all of the adult book authors - huge names, by the way - but I have to admit that I'm a kidlit nerd at heart.

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.

This morning I was very excited to see Rebecca Stead’s book First Light as the suggested book in the Washington Post’s KidsPost section! For my money, this place in the paper is much better for a kids’ book, so like, “Yeah, Rebecca!” I really liked First Light — not to mention Rebecca herself — so I’m glad to see the book get some buzz. Remember how I mentioned the Al Roker book club call, Rebecca? You may want to prepare.

In other book news, Fuse#8 alerted me to the presence of a book trailer for Robin Brande’s book Evolution, Me, and Other Freaks of Nature. Very cool. I really enjoyed the book, but Bill reviewed it because he won the coin toss. Let me add to his review that I particularly like the humor throughout the book, which kept a heavy topic from taking over the tone. For instance, a description of a yoga position that “can only come in handy if you ever want to shave your own back.” One more thing: I think that the opening paragraphs set up the book so perfectly. Here they are, as a MotherReader bonus, so you’ll check out the trailer, the review(s), the first paragraphs, and get yourself this book — now available at a bookstore near you (or at Amazon, duh).

I knew today would be ugly.

When you’re single-handedly responsible for getting your church, your pastor, and every one of your former friends and their parents sued for millions of dollars, you expect to make some enemies. Fine.

It’s just that I hoped my first day of school — of high school, thank you, which I’ve only been looking forward to my entire life — might turn out to be at least slightly better than eating live bugs. But I guess I was wrong.

Okay, so that went well. Maybe one of my Best Days Ever. Let’s start at the beginning.

I woke up at 4:30 a.m., all charged up. I tried to go back to sleep, but gave up at 5:00 a.m. and decided to read Letters from Rapunzel (great book, btw) since I would be seeing the author at ALA. And what else was I going to do with myself at that ungodly hour of the morning?

Took the Metro into town by 9:00, and shared a seat with a nice YA librarian from Richmond. Together we figured out where to go for registration. It was very helpful to have someone else with me for this because the Washington Convention Center is huge, and I hate navigating around unfamiliar places. Even though it seemed as if there were lots of long lines to sign in, with my online registration I just had to walk up to a computer, type in my number, and my badge printed out. How simple. Everything was already off to an easy start.

The exhibit hall was immense. But I kept in mind my first goal of the day, and went directly (pretty much) to the Horn Book booth to meet Roger Sutton. He was there as promised, and I introduced myself. We talked a little bit, but he had someone else who came up to see him, so I excused myself. I would have loved more time to chat, but perhaps another time. Great to meet him in person in any case.

My goals for touring the exhibits were to see what books were coming out, introduce myself to some publishers to smooth the requesting books process, and get some books signed for me and for next year’s 48 Hour Book Challenge. I was able to get to the signings of Avi, Gregory MacGuire, Jack Prelutsky, Nancy Perl, Eric Kimmel, Laura Schlitz, and Jeff Kinney. The only one I really had to wait for was Jack Prelutsky, and he was very friendly and funny about signing the book “You’re a winner!” for the 48 HBC. Other notables were Avi, who was a little bit cranky about doing the same thing, and Jeff Kinney of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, who was very sweet and gracious. I may be biased though, in that at least he knew my blog. I bought his book for my daughter, but he’s committed to a donation for next year’s contest and I will remember that.

So then I’m minding my own business, walking around, and who should I run into but John Green and Cecil Castellucci! Now they were two of the people I had most wanted to meet, but they were on the Sunday author signing schedule. And yet, here they were. I talked to Cecil about how much I had loved her book Beige and other book stuff, including an interview I’m going to do with her as soon as I can send her the questions. I introduced myself to John Green — who did know my blog, but I had never met him personally — and we talked briefly about his email overload, his Judy Blume encounter, and his Brotherhood 2.0 project. He let me take the picture, as long as I promised to let go of his arm.

So then I’m minding my own business again, but this time at the Harcourt booth, when I ran into M.T. Anderson. After waiting somewhat awkwardly (awkward for him I mean, since he was talking with his publisher and I was all but actively staring at him waiting to talk to him), I introduced myself and he did know my blog (niiice) and we talked a bit about blogs (he mentioned Seven Impossible Things specifically) and book contests (well, mine) and Tulane readers theater (we agreed that asking Kate to sign it was probably inappropriate) and his Brotherhood 2.0 appearance (which, frankly, was why I recognized him so quickly). A nice Harcourt rep took our picture.

He escaped from my clutches, and I turned around and recognized — after a few seconds — Liz from Tea Cozy. As if that weren’t enough for my chance meeting quota, then I saw Rebecca Stead — who I had so enjoyed meeting in NYC — and Sara Holmes — whose book I had read that morning — without moving from the Harcourt booth. Since we were all going to Mitali’s party, I didn’t have to go in alone and got bonus time walking and talking with these cool folk.

Mitali’s book launch party was lots of fun with a reading, quizzes, and a bhanga lesson. I got to meet Mitali for the first time in real life, and she was just as nice and sweet as I’d guessed. Sheila from Wands and Worlds took my dare and came to the party, and even with her tight schedule, Betsy from Fuse#8 made it too! As everyone circulated, I met lots of fun bloggers and publishers and librarians. (Oh my!)

Afterward, about fourteen of us headed over to the KidLit Drink Night. There was some confusion about where to put us, but that was mostly my fault because I didn’t realize that as Julie from Reader’s Carousel (picture already up, so timely) went there first, she’d reserved a great table for us near the bar. I had a little more time — though not nearly enough time — to meet the bloggers from Biblio File, Zee Says, The YA YA YA’s (well, one ya at least), and 2nd Gen Librarian. Book lovers Genivieve and Kristin came into town just for the event, and we were joined by Blue Rose lady Alvina and Summer Blog tour interviewee Justina Headley. Oh, and Rebecca’s friend and fellow Class of 2K7er Karen Day. Oh and Sondra and Jenna from Kane/Miller and Mindy (oh no, is that right?) from Hachette that I loved talking to — and not just because she knows Mo. Oh, and an author, Rhonda Roth, and an independent publisher, Sarah Doyle, stopped by too to chat and meet people.

I love parties, so I had a great time meeting everyone, and I am ninety percent sure that everyone else had fun too. I have to say that after being up since 4:30 a.m. (not my usual practice), eating very little (also not my usual practice), and talking to people all day (which revs me up), I was a little wired. And I’ll admit that. But it was an awesome end to an incredible day.

I have to send out a special thank you to Sheila, who not only came to the book launch and happy hour even though she was headed on a vacation the next day, but helped take care of business at Capitol City Brewing Company. She was great at dealing with the waiter, who was very confused by our using the fourteen seats at the table as some sort of KidLit musical chairs game. Some people had to leave early, some came later, some moved around, some ordered dinner, some didn’t. The poor waiter. She also took over my most dreaded chore — settling the bill and making sure it worked out. Not only did it work out, we had more than enough. So if you are feeling like you overpaid, let me thank you for buying me a beer. (Love and smiles.)

We left about 8:00, and I took the Metro home. I had promised myself that I would not pick up lots of ARCs but I couldn’t resist. Hauling them around all day was enough of a chore, but walking to the Metro I was starting to feel the strain on my shoulders. But today it’s just YEAH, NEW BOOKS!

And I’m going to throw this in because it’s related to meeting bloggers in person. Last weekend I got to meet Kelly from Big A, little a after her conference in the Hampton Roads area. We met in Norfolk with the kids — and I knew they were her kids as soon as we approached the meeting place because the oldest child was reading a book. We took a free, self-guided tour of the battleship Wisconsin, walked along the harborside, and had dinner. Kelly was just like I would have guessed, so engaging, friendly, and and interesting. We had great conversations, our kids all got along well, and we had a wonderful time. I can’t wait to see her again some day. Ah, one more picture. Why not?

Back to yesterday — I hope to get some pictures from people (email me!) since I forgot about my camera phone for almost all of the time. If I missed putting you in my post, I apologize, but it’s a loooong post and I’m losing steam now. I’ll be interested to see what experiences everyone else had at ALA. It was good for me. Was it good for you?

Next week I start talking about books again — I know, amazing — starting with a Very Special Picture Book.

Sorry I made you wait. By now you may have read a few posts about Who Was There. This is my experience, in tiresome detail, of a very cool kidlit drink night.

Arriving at Bar 9, I made my way to the back room, and met Betsy — or Fuse#8 — right away. She was wearing her “I Am Kiki Strike” T-shirt as promised, and we exchanged our so-glad-to-meet-you-at-lasts. We chatted briefly and went up to the bar. I released her to host her party, and ordered a chicken sandwich. Hey — I said tiresome detail, and I meant it, people.

Ordering at the bar at the same time was the only other person I had planned to meet at the drink night. Tim Bush, illustrator and gentleman, had offered me practical assistance for my visit to the Big City, and had agreed to make sure I made it home safely to my friend’s apartment. But we hadn’t met in person either. Well, he was very nice and fun to talk to. We talked for a while at the front of the bar instead of returning to the party already in progress. After fortifying myself with a chicken sandwich, one beer consumed, one beer in my hand, and some good conversation, I was ready to mingle.

Or so I thought...

See the rest “below the fold”!



When I walked into the back room, I realized that everyone was already in little clusters of people that they knew. I did the best thing I could: scurried to the quietest, least populated corner of the room. Now, who would have guessed what a wise decision this would be. Because it seemed that I met many people in my quiet corner. People who were dropping off their coats on the couches. People who were using the well-lit area to reapply lipstick. People who needed elbow room for a few minutes.

I quickly met all of the Longstockings. Actually, one was missing — as it is Longstocking policy to always have one member not in attendence in case the bar is attacked. Or maybe that’s Congress and the State of the Union Address. Anyway, I spoke with Lisa Graff, who gave me a copy of her book. Important, given that I will interview her on Saturday. I talked with Caroline Hickey, who will send her book shortly. And I talked with Jenny Han, whose book, Shug, I read, loved, and praised. We talked for a while about her book and her thoughts in writing it. She’s working on something for younger readers now, and I made her pinky swear to get me a copy.

In my quiet corner, I met Ron from Galleycat, and we talked about blogging for fun and profit. I met J.L. Bell from Oz and Ends, and we talked about blogging, writing in general, Newbery awards, and world peace. Though I may be wrong about the world peace one. He was a very interesting guy, very nice, and also quite attached to our corner.

Alvina from the Blue Rose Girls (A picture of Alvina, J.L. and me is on her site) made it back our way, bringing along Barbara Johansen Newman, who deserves particular mention for being one person who was specifically looking to meet me during the evening. So bless you, BJN. (A picture of me and Alvina is on her site.) Then some class of 2k7er’s entered my territory, which meant business cards for everyone. Huzzah! Yi Shun Lai told us about her book featuring a man-eating cabbage called, I believe, Cole’s Law.

Then, another kismet encounter in the quiet corner. A woman walked up holding a book — and this book was the one book in the whole Bloomsbury catalog that I was interested in reviewing. I told her as much, she gave me the book (or I wrestled it out of her hands), and sketched me in her notebook. We talked, along with J.L. Bell, about illustrations in middle-grade books. The author’s name is Ruth McNally Barshaw, and I’m sure I’ll be writing about her book, Ellie McDoodle: Have Pen, Will Travel, soon.

Time for a bathroom break and another beer (only three so far — don’t judge me). On the way back to the room, I ran into Betsy. We talked a bit, and she introduced me to Laini Taylor. She and her husband have the most beautiful art on their business cards. She has written a novel that Betsy just raved about, and I hope I’ll get to see it myself someday.

The back room had cleared out some now, and I just inserted myself in a conversation with two women. One was 2k7er Rebecca Stead, and we shared some kid stories and some laughs. One was Michelle Knudson, who’s the author of Library Lion, plus also the editor of the Junie B. Jones books. I LOVE Junie B. Jones. We talked about J.B.J. for a while, and I believe she said she would forward my J.B.J. article to Barbara Park. And I believe that was before I gave her my wallet.

With the party winding down about 11:00 p.m., and the host leaving (we had made plans to talk the next day), I was ready to head out. Seeing my new friend Tim on the far side of the couch engaged in conversation, I climbed behind Barry Goldblatt (at the time it seemed less rude then walking in front of him, but in retrospect may have been more rude) and sat between him and Tim. And found myself sitting across from Linda Sue Park.

Well, I wasn’t going home now. I was glad to meet her, and she reads my blog (yeah, baby!), so of course I like her. She was very nice and very charming. She’s putting out a book of poetry soon, which we talked about, in between the times that Barry Goldblatt was telling her which 2006 books were total crap (apparently many popular YA titles).

When she got up to leave, I did too. I was able to collect the promotion card from Tracie Zimmer for her new book Reaching for Sun. I mention her card because it was actually a packet of daisy seeds, which may be the cutest thing ever. In going to close out my tab, the wonderful Blue Rose Girl Alvina introduced me to David Diaz. Whom I did not know as a Caldecott-winning illustrator. But he did not seem the least bit offended by my ignorance, and was very charming. And a little hot, by the way.

Okay, now I was ready to leave, and Tim and I had a real chatfest as he escorted me across town to the door of my friend’s apartment. It was closing in on 1:00 a.m. by the time I got home. I had two ARCs, a number of business cards, and (at least) one new friend. Not bad for one night. Not bad at all.

[NOTE: Edited on 2/14/07 to add author links]