The Haul

True confession: I didn’t read the whole time I was at ALA. Well, I read menus and schedules, but no books. I find it kind of funny.

I mailed two medium sized boxes of books home and the last one arrived last night. I made an effort to be selective about what I took – in part to be mindful of my consumption, in part because I took a small suitcase on the train. Aside from about five books I brought to school yesterday, this is my book haul:

Here, in no particular order, are the ones I am most excited about.

Patron Saint of Nothing by Randy Ribay

The Size of the Truth  by Andrew Smith

Last of the Name  by Rosanne Parry

Pay Attention, Carter Jones by Gary D. Schmidt

Susan B. Anthony by Teri Kanefield

 

 

 

#alamw19- Day 3 – Food!

Sunday was an eat-a-thon.

My day started at 8 with a breakfast with Kokila Books, a new Penguin imprint.

Vice President and Publisher,Namrata Tripathi, told the story of the imprint and introduced us to some of the first books they will publish, one of which is by Celia C. Pérez. You might know her as the author of The First Rule of Punk. She introduced us to her upcoming book Strange Birds: A Field Guide to Ruffling Feathers.

 

 

Next came a brunch with Scholastic, where they introduced us to three upcoming picture books.

As soon as the Scholastic event ended I was off to my first lunch with Abrams where they previewed the books coming in the spring. These ranged from a  new picture book by Peter H. Reynolds to Cat Winter’s newest  YA novel.

I dashed uphill to another lunch with Boyd’s Mill. I arrived late, but I got to chat with the publishers who gave me an ARC  of Ordinary Hazards by Nikki Grimes.

After all that eating and running around, I needed to refresh myself took a little break back in the hotel.

My final event of the evening was a celebration with Kwame Alexander and these Versify authors.

I made an early night of it, packing my bag and getting to bed at a decent hour. The Youth Media Awards begin at 8 am PST and I will be taking the train back to Portland later in the afternoon, After the Norris Nonfiction Celebration.  Don’t forget, you can live stream the Youth Media Awards.

 

#ALAMW19 – Day 1

The nice thing about ALA being in Seattle is that I didn’t have to get up at a crazy hour to catch an early flight to some point  east of Portland. Instead, I got up at my regular time and took the bus to the train station because I was travelling by train.

A business class round trip ticket wasn’t much more expensive than coach,  and it was totally worth it. We got out own waiting room!

As you can see, I was early. The train was 30 minutes late but I didn’t care. I was happy not to be driving! And besides, how often does a plane have a delay of some sort? Business class is set up with two seats on one side and single seats on the other. I had been assigned a single and settled in to knit and listen to my audiobook as we rolled North. Business class passengers were given a coupon for the Bistro, so partway through the journey, I went to see what was on offer. I got a yogurt cup with granola and it was delicious. It was a local Seattle brand and the cup indicated they had a shop in Pike Street Market. I filed that info for later.

When I get to a new city, I like to get oriented. The weather in Seattle was beautiful, so I walked – uphill all the way – from the train station to my hotel, where I was able to check in early. I walked to the convention center to get my badge and then decided to walk to Pike Street Market, only 5 blocks from my hotel.

Conventions are great, but often the food is rich.  As I walked around, looking for the yogurt people, I kept my eye out for breakfast food. I almost didn’t find the yogurt and then, suddenly, it was right in front of me. Woohoo! I found some fresh bagels and got a smoked salmon cream cheese spread and headed home, stopping in a Target for plastic spoons and some La Croix. The basics taken care of, I felt ready to start conferencing.

Traditionally, the Holiday House reception marks the start of the conference for many. Some texts flew between a Beaverton colleague and I and we met up to go together to the first of three events.  She was off somewhere else afterwards, but I met up with a few other people to go to a Penguin/ United for Libraries event.

I walked over to the table where they where handing out copies of this book

The person behind the table said, “Are you doing OBOB at your school?”

“How did you know I did OBOB?” I asked, startled.

“I am the author of Avenging the Owl,” was her reply. I looked at her tag and sure enough, she was Melissa Hart. We had a lovely chat. She will be the guest of honor at the State OBOB meet April.

From there my group was off to the Seattle Public library with an evening with Hervé Tullet where were played and created. Here is my piece:

Even though it was late, my hotel wasn’t far, so I walked back. the fresh evening air was wonderful. I went to bed a lot later than usual, but I was so exhausted I fell asleep right away.

I am ready to get serious about the conference today.