Close Encounters of #alaac18

It's been so long since I wrote my own blog post that I almost feel like I have forgotten how.  I hope this will get me back in the swing of things for the summer. There are many great books I want to share! In the meantime, I found myself in New Orleans last weekend to celebrate libraries, librarians, illustrators, authors, publishers, books, book promoters, narrators...

My takeaways from #alaac18 here in the form of ten memorable encounters of the conference. Not in any particular order and certainly not all inclusive:

Pura Belpre winner, Ruth Behar's parents:  The moment after the beautiful Pura Belpre Celebration where I ran up to Ruth Behar's parents and exclaimed, "I'm from Briarwood!  I went to PS 117!" We are family!

Caldecott honor winner, Elisha Cooper:  Leaping with Elisha Cooper at the Macmillan Dessert Party on Friday night.  My second graders were fans of Big Cat, Little Cat since the beginning so this was a thrill for me!  Best part about this encounter?  I found out his newest book is about a canoe trip on the Hudson River.  I screamed! Book birthday at Schodack Island State Park, right?  Stay tuned.  ALSO--One of Mrs. Warland's favorite books is Elisha's Homer! She loves sharing it when she is a guest reader.  After that book birthday event, you know where dinner will be! Note to self: Send Elisha some good upstate honey when you get a chance.

MATT CORDELL con familia:  From seeing the Caldecott medalist at the Macmillan Dessert Party in his spiffy vintage red jacket (and not dipping our fingers into Elisha's honey), to hanging with his kids (and chatting about Simpsonville with his mom) atop of New Orleans, I had to be pinched multiple times that I was actually living in reality. And then the speech.  Matt hit every emotion and just nailed it.  I couldn't leap fast enough to an ovation when he finished his final words.

 

Mover and Shaker, Rocco Staino: Did you know that I want to be Rocco when I grow up?  Lucky me, we were seated next to each other at an Abrams breakfast so I took some notes on how to work on making that happen. Here we are with author, Ellen Potter, who currently lives in Maine but will be a New Yorker soon!

2017 Geisel winner, Laurie Keller: My "date" for the banquet was Laurie Keller (Arnie the Doughnut, We Are Growing, Scrambled States of America, Do Unto Otters...and her newest book, Potato Pants).  I am really glad I put my star-struckedness aside and was just able to hang out, talk about hotmail, where she lives in Michigan, the call, her awesome jewelry from Israel...And then, bonus, on the other side of me was her editor extraordinaire, Christy Octtaviano. We talked picture book biographies (one of my favorite genres), Junior Library Guild, teenagers, the college process...Yeah, I had a pretty darn good seat that night. Thank you, Lucy and the Macmillan family!

Nancy Paulsen:  I have admired editor extraordinaire, Nancy Paulsen's work for many years and I always get a thrill when she likes, comments or retweets my tweets (just happened this morning).  And there she was! Don't be shy, Stacey, I said to myself and a few minutes later we were chatting.

Old and new friends: Powdered-sugar-everywhere-Beignets with Texas rockstar Becky Calzada.  Just screaming and hugging, Texan 2018 Caldecott Committee member, Sylvia Vardell.  Walking the exhibit hall with Coloradan and former Geisel Committee member, Amy Seto-Forrester.  Literally sharing a delicious dinner with Californian #TeamKwame member and old friend, MaryAnn Scheuer.  Squeezing into a phone booth with virtual (and now IRL) Floridian school librarian, Jennifer Underhill at the super hip Penguin event at the Art Garage. Riding a rickshaw with New York friend, Sue Kowalski.

Crown creators, Derrick Barnes and Gordon C. James:  Listening to their speeches at the CSK breakfast was one thing but then getting a book signed for my rising sixth grade upstate New York farmer boy and telling them all about how Crown is Zach's favorite book was something even better.  I'm delivering it to Zach at the farm tomorrow morning.

Laurel Snyder with Jonathan Auxier:  I was sitting waiting for a session when my eyes drifted to the name tags of  Laurel and Jonathan. "OMG! OMG!" This Orphan Island and Night Gardener fan was beside herself. And then we got to hang out for a bit...

Dion Graham and Kirsten Cappy: To myself I was trying to strategize what to do next after the banquet on Sunday when my eyes recognized the name, Kirsten Cappy of Curiosity City on her badge.  "I get your emails!" Kirsten was hanging with her friend, Dion, who just won the Odyssey Award for his narration of Trombone Shorty. We saw Trombone Shorty at the opening session.  I got a great big bear hug from Bryan Collier at the banquet so this was a perfect end to memorable evening and an unforgettable conference.

Who else? Feeling like you were eavesdropping on Michelle Obama and Carla Hayden in their living room.  A hug from Kwame, two photo ops with Mr. Schu, almost a "wave" from editor, Grace Kendall, a leap with Nathan Hale, a boomerang with Rafael Lopez, Juana, Pablo, Celia, book reviewer Barb Langridge, Trevor, Jenny, the Rosen family, everyone-knows-Barbara Moon, catching nonfiction rockstar, a hug from Sophie Blackall, salutations with Melissa Stewart for one second or two...

And my passing ship, roommate, Alicia Abdul.  It was fun experiencing the conference with you (sort of!).  No joke--we saw each other for enough seconds on Sunday so she could zip me up and button my clasp! We did have fun together on Friday night! I do believe she was shocked to see me actually tired for the first time in my life on Monday morning. But what do you expect when you get about 6-8 total hours of sleep over a three day period? Ahhhh...but I am completely caught up now. So when's the next event?