National Book Festival 2017

This year was my second year attending the NBF at the Washington Convention Center.  When it moved locations, I was disappointed to hear that it wouldn't be held on the national lawn anymore, so I boycotted for a year. But I have to say, last Saturday was an UGLY day in DC--humid and rainy all day.  It was a pleasure to be inside, getting to meet authors and seeing friends as we waited in lines snaking around the convention center.

I stuck with middle grades authors, while my sister and nephew transversed children's authors up to YA. Here are the highlights of the day:

The ride to DC was miserable.

Meg Medina signing her Yacqui Delgado book for me.

Melissa de la Cruz signing Alex and Eliza for my niece.

Jack Gantos using a fancy Montblanc fountain pen to sign books.

Kelly Barnhill, author of thisyear's Newbery Award winner.

One of my favorite authors, Nicola Yoon.

My sister took and tweeted this photo of Angie Thomas, and the LOC retweeted it!

Condoleezza Rice passing by with her entourage.

My sister got this pic of Jesmyn Ward, who is more YA than MG.

My nephew with Lincoln Peirce (pronounced Purse!).

National Book Festival 2013

We had such a great, memorable time at the National Book Festival yesterday! Here's how it all started:  I was texting my sister to tell her we were almost there, when I fell flat on my face.  I should be in a PSA about the dangers of texting and walking.  It  happened right outside the Ronald Reagan Federal Building (we parked under it), so I am quite sure it was caught on camera...from numerous angles.  A security guard was on me before I even stood up, making sure I was okay.  Mostly a bruised ego, until I started walking again, and then I realized I did something to my right heel.  Ouch!! But it's the Book Festival, PRESS ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I hobbled the block and a half to the book signings, which were right on 14th Street.  At least I didn't have far to go, since, as you know, I'm all about the book signings at the festival.  I didn't even leave that area yesterday--just planted myself in lines and waited for authors.

Here's who I met:

Katherine Applegate

Katherine Applegate was so gracious!! The woman in line before me (in the picture) is also a school librarian, and we talked for a long time before the author arrived.  That was fun.  Katherine thanked us for our work.  Oh, my goodness...thanking us.  I loved, loved, loved The One and Only Ivan, and now it's on our state readers' list, so many of our students will get to love it, too.  So excited to tell the kids about her.

Margaret Atwood--I didn't meet her, but she was at the next table, so I took her picture. Her line was crazy-long.

Jon Klassen

Jon was super-friendly, too.  We were discussing how the little kids just refuse to believe that something bad happened to the rabbit.  He has experienced it, too. Then, HORROR--he noticed that we had the wrong sticker on the book.  Of course, we had the book before it won the Giesel Honor, but we put a Caldecott Honor sticker on it by mistake!! YIKES!! I will fix tomorrow at school.  

Matthew and Jennifer Holm

I didn't bring any books for the Team Holm because I was sure their line would be crazy long.  But it wasn't!  Jill ended up getting a couple Squish books signed for Toa, and then she took this great picture of them.

Hoda Kotb

I love Hoda!!! We were waiting to meet Oliver Jeffers and there was this big long line next to us.  We were wondering who they were waiting to meet, and it turned out to be Hoda.  My sister looked at them with disdain and said, "Of course.  They don't even LOOK like readers."  HA! We got some good pictures of Hoda, who was so gracious.  She's quite tall and has bright white teeth.  And what a smile! Everybody got that smile.  She was posing for pictures with people until the workers put a stop to that.  It would've taken hours for her to finish signing if she did all those pictures!

My sister and Toa with Oliver Jeffers

Oliver Jeffers signing The Incredible Book Eating Boy for me.

He was wonderful, too!! And I loved his Irish accent.  Unfortunately, it started POURING when we were getting our books signed, so everything was super-rushed.  He was the last author of the day for us, so at least we were finished waiting in lines when the skies opened.

After we finished getting books signed, we sealed everything in waterproof bags and donned our ponchos and umbrellas and headed for the car.  We had an early dinner at Carmine's (a new tradition) and were back home by 7:30.  Not a bad day, hurt foot and all.

Award Winning Thoughts

I am so happy with the Caldecott Awards this year! The week before the awards were announced, I had read This is Not My Hat to the first grade classes, not because I was predicting anything, but because we'd read I Want My Hat Back as part of our state readers' choice list.  So I thought they'd like Jon Klassen's new book (which they did).  They were very excited to hear that it won the Caldecott, and we put the Award sticker on it right away. Notice it has the perfect cover for a medal.

Because of our subscription to Junior Library Guild, I had most of the award and honor winners already.  Great choices all around.  This fall, I got our copy of Extra Yarn signed by Mac Barnett. Double win for Jon Klassen with that one!! Where to put the silver medal, though? Maybe cover art designers can think of this in the future--just a little corner, that's all I need!

I took Creepy Carrots to the book festival, too, to be signed.  It's very fun, although I haven't read it to any classes yet.  My nephew sure enjoyed it!

I wouldn't be any kind of librarian if I didn't give a shout-out to One Cool Friend, written by Toni Buzzeo.  She's a librarian, so I triple-love this book.  Anything that David Small illustrates is tops in my book, but this was still a total surprise to me! Notice the area in the lower-left corner for the medal. 

When I took I Have a Dream: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. out of the box recently, I knew instantly it was Kadir Nelson.  His books are just classic.  There is no mistaking his style or his books' shape.  It is beautiful and of course a shoe-in for the award.  We got it just in time for MLK, Jr. Day, and the teachers ate it up.

Ellen's Broom was an enjoyable book, but not on my radar for the CSK illustrator award.  I am partial to the style to the illustrator, Daniel Minter.  Woodcuts? Scratchboard?  I'm not totally sure, but I know it appeals to me.  The story does not seem all that original to me; where have I read something like this before, I don't know, but I feel like I've heard it already.  At any rate, I'm glad for Daniel Minter.

This is the book that threw me over the edge, though: Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson.  I just cataloged it the weekend before it won the CSK Author Honor, but I hadn't read it.  So I brought it home on Monday night and read it Tuesday morning over breakfast.  Then I cried.  And cried.  And cried.  I cried some more on my way to work.  I cried when I told my assistant about it.  It is just so sad! It is the most perfect  book for discussion, though.  But I don't know if I'll be able to read it aloud to a class! I plan to show it to my principal this week because it is a great accompaniment for the 26 Acts of Kindness program that we're doing at my school.  It's amazing, really.

The Awesome Bob Shea

I am just so excited to barely know Bob Shea.  What a fun author and wonderful person he is.  Of course, I've known about the Dinosaur vs. ________ books for a while now.  As an aside, I think I need to let the Merriam-Webster people know that "verse" as in "What else can the dinosaur verse?" should be added to their dictionary.  I cannot tell you how many students say that.  I've found myself saying it, too.  There's just no other good word for the present-tense-single of "versus." 
So this whole interesting story started when Dinosaur vs. Bedtime was picked as a 2012-2013 Virginia Readers' Choice (VRC) nominee this past spring.  I started studying up on it in order to present ideas for using it in the library at our state librarians' conference (which was a few weeks ago).  Then I discovered Dinosaur vs. the Library, which, as a librarian, is at the top of MY list.  I brought my copy to the National Book Festival in September and Bob Shea signed it. Score!

While I was getting my book signed, I mentioned one of my students, L, who came to the library looking specifically for Dinosaur vs. Bedtime.  I felt so bad, because she was so wanting to read that book.  It was at my house (where I was preparing for the VRC presentation). I also mentioned that L is battling leukemia, and misses a lot of school because of her treatments.  Truth is, I have seen her only a handful of times because she misses quite a bit of school. Anyway, Bob says to me, "Email me her name and your address, and I'll send her a signed copy."  Just like that. 
So it took me a few weeks to email him, and then Superstorm Sandy got in everybody's way, but last week, a package of books--not just one book, mind you--arrived for L at my school.  We were so excited.  Her teacher cried.  I cried.  I'm pretty sure my assistant cried.  Presenting L with the books was just such a joyous moment--thank you, Bob!

So this past rotation, we've been reading Dinosaur vs. Bedtime.  The kindergarten and first graders are loving it! My voice is taking a beating with all the roaring, but we are having so much fun.  After we read the book, the kids each come up with their own idea for Dinosaur vs. ___________.  They write and draw a picture.  So many cute ideas! Here are a couple of pictures of my favorites:

Dinosaur vs. Zombie Kids. (Zombie Kids win!!)

This one cracked me up.  Dinosaur vs. the Principal.  Check out
the phonetic spelling of principal.  And look at his crossed arms!

 

My total favorite--can you tell what it says?
Dinosaur vs. Barack Obama, of course!
You can probably tell by the President's face who won that battle...

Roar!  Thanks, Bob Shea, for a great week in the library!