ALA Midwinter Day 3 #alamw17

After going to bed early, I woke up energetic. Go me!

The day started and ended with Macmillan. I had a 6:45 a.m. breakfast and a dinner at a seafood restaurant this evening. The breakfast was large and showcased all kinds of books and was a formal presentation. The dinner was fancier, but the books were on our tables. Macmillan editors and marketing staff sat with smaller groups of conference attendees and it was just a lovely evening of intelligent conversation.

In between, I had a hilarious presentation by Scholastic. Gordon Korman, Madelyn Rosenberg, Wendy Wan-Long Shang, and Natasha Tarpley, did live readers’ theater presentations of parts of each of their books. It was laugh out loud funny!

From there I went to a Penguin Random House luncheon where more new titles were presented.

I took some time after wards to rest up before my first 2018 Sibert Committee meeting. We mostly introduced ourselves, got to know each other and talked logistics, but it fueled my excitement for working on the committee.

It will be another early mooring so I can check out before the Youth Media Awards.  I will attend the YALSA’s 2017 Morris/Nonfiction Award presentations afterwards.

I am scheduled to fly out mid afternoon but the weather is looking a bit dodgy. Please send thoughts and prayers. I’ve had lots of fun  and learned a lot, but I am looking forward to getting home again. I miss my Lucy.

 

ALA Midwinter Day 2

I had an early start to my day, rising early for a 6:45 breakfast with National Geographic and Kwame Alexander to celebrate their forthcoming collaboration, Animal Ark.

The book is a collection of Joel Sartore’s photos and haiku by Kwame Alexander, Mary Rand Hess and Deanna Nikaido. With his passionate words, Kwame inspired us to do what we can to protect the earth.

In spite of the coffee, I was still tired. I felt incredibly jet lagged. And yet, I decided to venture into the exhibit hall. I love this part of a conference. I talked to book people and picked up more arcs than I’d planned, but got a few a I really wanted. I also sat in on a panel of authors who contributed to Flying Lessons, 

a middle grade anthology of short stories that was just published by  We Need Diverse Books, a grassroots organization of children’s book lovers that advocates essential changes in the publishing industry to produce and promote literature that reflects and honors the lives of all young people.

Lunch was a Simon & Schuster reception showcasing new books, and highlighting Amina’s Voice  by Hena Khan, who was the guest speaker.

Following that, I returned to the hotel, organized my books and headed off to the Post Office. Tomorrow is a very full day and I probably won’t have time to get ship the books I picked up today. I ran into some fellow Beaverton colleagues on my way out of the exhibits before returning to my hotel for a quiet evening in to rest up for tomorrow.

ALA Midwinter Meeting Day 1

Travel went well yesterday. I was in my hotel by 4 but boy did I pack wrong. It was 68ºF when we landed!

After heading over to Registration to get my ID, I went back to the hotel to get refreshed and plot it my route to my 2 evening events.

The first, put on by Holiday House, was in a restaurant. I ran into  a couple of people I knew and met some new people. Most everyone at the events I attend is on some sort of book committee, so we all have a lot in common. I picked up a few arcs I am excited to add to my classroom library.

From there, it was a short walk to The World of Coca Cola, where Penguin Random House hosted a reception. It was cool to tour the venue where we had free access to fountains where we could taste Coca-Cola products form around the world.

 Each fountain offered drinks form a particular continent and I ran into an old friend from Latin America : Inka Cola!

After sampling the beverages, a group of DC Comics artists showed up to sign free books. I had each of the artists dedicate them to my class. Three of them were from the Portland area and we had a good chat.

Here is a shot of today’s book haul:

I was exhausted walking back to the hotel, but excited and energized for tomorrow.