Day 2: The Exhibits

Not only did we see plenty of speakers, we spent some quality time at the exhibits. We saw lots of authors, took pictures, got things signed, got some GREAT galleys. My triumph for today is that I have the ARC of the final installment of the amazingly fabulous Chaos Walking series by Patrick Ness, Monsters of Men. If you haven't read this series (The Knife of Never Letting Go, and The Ask and the Answer are the first two) you should. Right now.

Who we saw:

Malinda Lo, author of Ash.

Laurie Halse (rhymes with waltz) Anderson, author of Wintergirls, and many others. Jamie chatted and gushed with her.

Kadir Nelson, author of We are the Ship


Jerry Pinkney, illustrator of The Lion of the Mouse


Mo Willems, author of the pigeon books and the Elephant and Piggie books, and other amazing things. I bought Can I Play Too?, an Elephant and Piggie book so I could get it signed. Anna, Jamie and I were laughing hysterically in line while we were reading it. I especially enjoyed the illustration where Piggie gets an idea and light bulb above her head is a halogen light bulb.

I don't know if you can tell, but I'm grinning like a fool in this picture

Melissa Marr, author of Wicked Lovely

Gail Gibbons author of many, many nonfiction picture books.

Karen Cushman, author of The Midwife's Apprentice and many others. Her new one is Alchemy and Meggy Swann.

Jon Scieszka. Who is amazing. And just as funny as you think he is. He had ARCs of Funny Business, a collection of short stories for guys, part of the Guys Read initiative.


And we had some time for some ridiculous of our own: