Year #4 of Princeton Book Festival

It's hard to believe that for the past four years, my son and I have made the trek to attend the annual Princeton Book Festival #PPLBookFest, but we have and it continues to be worth it.  It doesn't hurt that my grandmother lives a half hour away so it becomes a weekend of books and Bubby.

We were very late leaving Castleton.  Why?  Because at ALA I was given an ARC of SWEEP by Jonathan Auxier and had not read it yet.  I began it Thursday and it had to be finished before I saw him at the festival.  Well, I stayed up late, woke up early and closed the book (after reading all the excellent back matter, too) at 9:00 am.  We were on the road an hour ish later. It was so good and I promise to blog about it before the big book birthday on Tuesday! So, yes, I was able to chat with Jonathan about it (Are you Jewish? No but...Trees in houses seem to be running themes in your books. This was not scary like The Night Gardener but crushed my heart in other ways.)

Jonathan is a tall guy and his leap is "off the page!"

I was THRILLED to see old friends:

Lauren Castillo with her newest book that got an amazing review in the NYT recently!

Anna Kang and Chris Weyant who will come to Castleton ONE OF THESE DAYS!

I met Ellen Potter at ALA in NOLA and now she is a New Yorker in the Syracuse area and a friend!  

Ame Dyckman ran out of Misunderstood Shark before I got there but we still got to take a leap!

The photo dedicated to Matt Cordell: Bob, Not Bob! authors Audrey Vernick and  TEXAN, Liz Garton Scanlon.

The incomparable Sophie Blackall who WILL be at CES someday soon, maybe even this year?
Looks like I'm squeezing her hand for dear life!

HAPPY to finally meet IRL some new friends:

Stella Diaz will be on my Newbery list!

I promised Abby Hanlon she will never forget this leap!

I love Shaking Things Up and Susan Hood's newest (and first middle grade) Lifeboat 12.
Plus, she's a Matt Cordell author, too!

Torrey Maldonado seemed to always have a crowd when I walked by. 

But I got lucky he was right behind me on the checkout line.

Tight will be on my Newbery list, too!

I've met Greg Pizzoli before but never really chatted.  He's the illustrator of Crunch, which I read to first graders on the first day of school.  "Did they sing 'Happy Birthday'?" he asked.  "They did!"
Who's mouth is open wider???

I'M STILL IN AWE when I chat with some folks who I wish were my friends:

Another Newbery list book.  Two years ago at the same festival I bought a copy of Liar and Spy (my favorite).
Then I came home only to find out I already owned a copy.  At least I remembered this year so as not to buy a third!

The only time I really saw my son smile yesterday was when he told Wendy Mass that The Candymakers is his favorite book.

Every time I see David Wiesner I tell him about our Surf City, Long Beach Island connection.
This time we talked about mini golf.  It didn't hurt that my son was wearing his Flamingo Golf t-shirt.

Susan Verde (also a Matt Cordell author) is our Gala author this year and our theme is "I am...ME!" piggybacking her "I Am" books with Peter H. Reynolds. We finally met IRL but of course, I never got a photo :-(.  I did get one with John Parra who illustrated Susan's latest book, Hey, Wall, that we will be featuring at our October Monthly Morning Assembly.

Shhh...Don't tell anyone (except me because I'd love to know that you read to the end of this post) but Mrs. Kelliher and I are going to dress up as the "I Am Peace" character for Halloween this year. I discreetly asked Susan if she had any of the hats and she told me that a woman made three of them and told her that she would never make any again. Hmph?! I guess they were really hard to sew or crochet?  Well, I put a query out on Etsy tonight to a woman who loves to crochet.  Stay tuned.

Check out this stack of books for my library:

All in all a wonderful day to be a librarian.

I am taking up a collection though.  Send all donations to the Princeton Police Department:

Dear Princeton Municipal Court, 
Please pardon my negligence in feeding the meter.  I was too caught up in leaping with a slew of superstars that I became irresponsible in my parking payment duties.