Thanks, New Orleans

Well, we've all made it home.  We've had a fabulous time in New Orleans, not only at the conference itself, but also wandering around the French Quarter,

listening to jazz and Cajun music (this picture is from the piano bar at Pat O's),

eating interesting food (Steph is holding up her alligator sausage),

and getting to shake our heads in amazement while saying "Only in New Orleans."

 

Now we all need some time to recover and start reading.  Thanks for coming along with us, and you can expect lots of reviews of new and exciting books in the future!

Closing Session: Molly Shannon

The last day was yesterday! Kind of couldn't believe it. The only ALA event was the closing session, which was with actress, comedian, and now writer, Molly Shannon. The reason she was speaking at ALA is because she recently came out with a children's book called Tilly the Trickster. She didn't talk about her book right away though. First she just talked about her life.  Her mother and younger sister died in a car accident when Molly was very young, so she grew up with her older sister and her father.  She spoke very highly of her father, praising him for letting her be herself.  She had a love for singing and dancing and theater early on, and in 6th grade she joined a theater group.  She loved how affectionate the theater people were.

The Exhibits: Final Day

Oh I was good on Monday, the last day of the exhibits.  I didn't come back with a single book.  Not one!  We still saw a number of authors.

Lauren Myracle, author of many books for teens and tweens, including Love Ya Bunches.

Ingrid Law, author of Savvy and Scumble.

The OTHER Science Fiction and Fantasy Panel

 So there were two science fiction and fantasy panels, and we went to them both.  The second one was with Brandon Sanderson and Nnedi Okorafor, who wrote Akata Witch, which I just read.  Susan Chang was moderating, and she started off talking about her personal experience with reading science fiction and fantasy and asked the writers if they thought the genre was a genre of outsiders.  Nnedi said she never thought about genre.  She read whatever was a good story.  She said she saw herself as a bit of a nerd because she liked to read so much, but she was also an athlete.  She moved between two worlds.  Brandon said he felt like an outsider until he found science fiction and fantasy and then he found a home.  He was a reluctant reader, but only because he hadn't found the right books yet.  Once he found books he loved to read, read he did.

Next the writers were asked if they thought that with the rise of Harry Potter,The Hunger Games and Twilight, were we currently in the Golden Age of fantasy?  Nnedi said it's always been the Golden Age of fantasy, but there is a strong trend right now.  Brandon talked about writing epic fantasy, and how that's actually been down while Harry Potter took off.  He hopes they'll be a rebound in epic fantasy at some point.  A reason epic fantasy might be on the decline is because it's become very generic.  It's white kids running around a sudo-medieval European country on some kind of quest.  He hopes to show readers that it doesn't always have to be the same story.

Megan asked about how heritage influenced their writing.  Nnedi grew up in the U.S. but is of Nigerian heritage and would visit Nigeria with her family.  When she writes, she writes from her roots.  Brandon tried to answer the question of why there are some many Mormon science fiction and fantasy writers.   He wasn't really sure.  He guessed that maybe it had to do with a science fiction class at Brigham Young University.  Many published science fiction authors came through Prof. Smith's class.  So perhaps it's less Mormon, but that many have this core class where there is a community of science fiction writers.

The author's talked about how libraries feature in their books, and what they're working on next.  Nnedi is working on an adult novel, two YA books, and a movie script for Who Fears Death.  Brandon is working on the final volume of The Wheel of Time series and a new YA series that will be coming out in 2012 or 2013.  I gave up on The Wheel of Time at volume seven, I think.  It started out so strong, but I felt it just got too meandery along the way.

YALSA Klatch

Arianna and I decided to go to the YALSA hosted coffee klatch on Sunday. It's kind of like speed dating authors. We sat at a table and an author would come sit with us for about five minutes. The authors included:

Alden Bell, Ilsa Bick, Franny Billingsley, Selene Castrovilla, Lucy Christopher, Cassandra Clare, Amanda Cockrell, Matt Dembicki, Sarah Dessen, Beth Fehlbaum, Alex Flinn, Chris Grabenstein, Claudia Gray, John Green, Julie Halpern, Steve Hamilton, Jenny Han, Jeff Hirsch, Valerie Hobbs, Ellen Hopkins, Maureen Johnson, Brian Katcher, James Kennedy, A.S. King, James Klise, Cynthea Liu, Joe Lunievicz, Carolyn Mackler, Lish McBride, Catherine Gilbert Murdock, Lauren Myracle, Jim Ottaviani, Bobbie Pyron, Cheryl Rainfield, Leila Sales, Marcus Sedgwick, Medeia Sharif, Maggie Stiefvater, Paul Volponi, and Blythe Woolston

Anna makes an impression...

On Saturday I woke up with no voice, it was COMPLETELY GONE. This was quite a conundrum as Ari and I were supposed to be giving our presentation on Sunday. We tried not to panic and I because a mute for the next 36 hours.

We went to a session with William Joyce speaking, which Jamie is writing about, afterward we were given his new book and he signed it. I had spent the last eight hours mouthing words to Jamie, Alana, and Arianna. Or snapping, clapping my hands, tapping on tables, or trying to 'shout' psst at them to get their attention. So we waited in line, me with Arianna (who happened to be the worst at reading lips), and let her know prior to us getting up to William Joyce what I wanted to say. We get up to William Joyce and I wave at him and he gives me a strange look. So I start snapping at Arianna so she can translate. William Joyce then proceeds to giggle at me for the rest of the time that I am standing in front of him. I wish I can giggle with him, except for my vow of silence. All I can say is that I hope I was memorable for him.

I was super excited to have Gail Carriger sign my book. Once again, if you haven't read her series I strongly suggest you do . As in I am commanding you to stop reading this blog and get her books and read them until you are finished with them all and then come back to this post. Go. Ok so we got in line and one of the publishers remembered me and had talked to Gail about me! How exciting! I proceeded to mouth things to her, fortunately Alana was there to translate. She then told me that she hoped I found my voice, which I am sure is why I got my voice back in time for the presentation. Thank you Gail.

So at least my lack of voice made me memorable. Though it caused some undue stress and panic. William, Gail, and I are now BFFs. Kind of like how I am Lane Smith's biggest friend.

Speaker Series: William Joyce

William Joyce, children's author/illustrator, gave a great talk on Saturday afternoon basically promoting his latest project.

Joyce is probably most famous for his book and television series Rolie Polie Olie, but at ALA he was talking about his latest series, which will not only be a series of picture books it will also be an animated film. Joyce is working with Dreamworks on the production. The Guardians of Childhood are the stories and mythologies behind some major childhood legends. The characters who are the "Guardians" include Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny (E. Aster Bunny), the Tooth Fairy, Jack Frost, and the Man in the Moon. They band together to protect the world from their and every child's nemesis, the Boogeyman.


The premise of this picture book series and film is not only precious, but brilliant in my opinion. These are the characters that so many of us grew up believing in -- and for Joyce to want to create and tell the stories of the origins of these characters is truly imaginitive. He said that he wanted to answer the myriad of questions kids ask about the why and how of Santa, the tooth fairy, Easter bunny, etc. that parents just don't have answers to in many cases.

He told endearing stories about painting tiny footprints in his kids' rooms (proof that the tooth fairy entered and exited according to the family's myth) and about digging a hole in the back yard each Easter because how else would a giant bunny travel from house to house leaving baskets for all of the children?!

Joyce also showed a preview of the Guardians film and gave us all a copy the first picture book, The Man in the Moon. It seems like an excellent project and these wandering librarians were certainly impressed by Joyce's ingenuity and his creative comeback (he hasn't published in more than 10 years), mostly, according to him, because he must have been developing these characters. Well done, Mr. Joyce.

Science fiction and fantasy panel

LITA (Libraries and information technology association) hosted a panel with the theme of the role of technology in the future seen through the lens of fantasy and science fiction. David Weber, Bill Willingham, Carrie Vaughn, Jon Scalzi, Orson Scott Card, Jim Ottaviani, and Gail Carriger were going to be speaking. We were SUPER excited that Gail Carriger was going to be there, she was adorably outfitted and was a visual delight.

I'm going to go through the speakers as they spoke and give a quick overview.

The Newbery Caldecott Wilder Awards Banquet

The second our presentation was done, I had to do a quick change and dash off to the Newbery Caldecott Wilder banquet.  It was at the New Orleans Marriott.  There are so many Marriott's in this place.  In the morning I was at the JW Marriott, and then our presentation was in the Marriott at Convention Center, and banquet was in the New Orleans Marriott.  Very confusing.

First there was cocktails, where there was some quality people watching to do.  Just before 6:45, people started lining up at the door to the ball room, which I thought was odd because you have an assigned table.  Maybe teachers and librarians just naturally make lines.  Unless there are free books involved, then there's a riot.

The banquet was nice, although in the future, I'd really be fine skipping that part and just coming to listen to the speeches.  I keep Kosher and am lactose intolerant, so I needed a vegan meal BUT I'd neglected to check in at the table by the door, which I hadn't even noticed, so I didn't have a colored piece of paper that said "vegan" on it so they refused to give me a vegan meal.  So that was annoying.  I had to go find someone in charge (along with a whole bunch of other people who also hadn't realized you needed a color piece of paper) to get a colored piece of paper so I could have dinner.  It was nice dinner once I got it, it was just a pain.  Then I had to go through it all again for dessert.  I ended up with a fruit plate big enough for five people.

But what it's really about is the speeches.  First up was the Caldecott Medal, which went to Erin E. Stead for A Sick Day for Amos McGee.  She was adorable and totally overwhelmed.  She talked about how she had lost faith in her drawing, and hadn't done anything in three years.  Than her husband introduced her to this project, and she started again.  It was a very sweet speech.

Winner of the Newbery Medal was Clare Vanderpool, for her very first book, Moon Over Manifest.  She was very funny.  She talked about how a sense of home was very important to her, and that's reflected in her book.  She talked about her struggles as a writer, and all the novels she wrote before she got this one published.  It must be something to have your first ever book win the Newbery or Caldecott.  It was Erin's first book too.  Clare told us about her reaction to winning the award. "Someone recently asked me if winning the Newbery is like having a baby.  It's like having a baby if you didn't know you were pregnant."

Every two years, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Lifetime Achievement Award is given.  This year, it went to Tomie dePaola.  He talked about his life and how from a very young age he knew he want to be an artist and draw picture books.  Also to sing and dance on the stage.  Tomie dePaola is so warm and funny.  It was just wonderful to hear him talk.  He was having a party when he got the phone call that he'd won the award.  "I told the committee their taste was impeccable.  Then I had to keep it a secret until the next day.  I wanted to run back to the party and say 'drinks on the house!'"

School Library Journal did a nice write up on the banquet if you'd like some more details. I had a very nice time, but I think next time just speeches.

Great Graphic Novels for Girls Presentation!

We did it!  After a million years of preparation and Anna LOSING HER VOICE the day before, it was time for the presentation.  It went awesome.  I'm really happy with how it went and so happy that Anna was able to talk!  She's a trooper.  Things were a little disorganized, although it is the first time that YALSA was doing anything like this.  Hopefully next year things will be a little better.  There was something going on in the room we were supposed to be in right before, so they were still setting up at 4.  We started 15 minutes late, and there was some confusion as to where our handouts and things were.  Don't worry, they found them. 

Once things got going, it went very well.  We gave our presentation four times, and we had a group all four times and people were interested and receptive.  We got cut short during the fourth time, since we'd started late and someone else was using the room right after us.  A lot of people picked up our handout and business card, even though they didn't have time to hear us speak.

Yay us!  Man, I can't believe that we did it and it's over!  We will continue to add to and update our Great Graphic Novels for Girls web site, so let us know if you have suggestions!  We're thinking about starting one for middle grades too.

Exhibits: Day Three

I did MUCH better at the exhibits on the third day.  I have way too many books already, so I went after specific things I wanted and didn't take anything else.  I was very good.  Really. ARCs I'm excited about: Steampunk!  An anthology of fantastically rich and strange stories edited by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant; Down the Mysterly River by Bill Willingham; Wisdom’s Kiss by Catherine Gilbert Murdock; Wonder  Struck by Brian Selznick; A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness; The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson; The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler.  OK fine.  I still got a lot of stuff even when I'm being systematic about it.  I also stopped by the graphic novel area, where Dave Roman was, author of Agnes Quill.  I told him how Anna and I were going to do a presentation on graphic novels for girls and his book was our mystery pick.  He was very pleased.  And then he gave me a copy and signed it!  Very sweet.

Author run down!

Random House Fall Book Buzz

Anna and I attended the Random House Fall Book Buzz to hear about upcoming titles that will be out this Fall. There were a number that I thought sounded good:

Before Ever After by Samantha Sotto. A widow is surprised when a man who looks exactly like her husband shows up at her door. She goes on a journey to find that she might not be a widow after all.

The Twelfth Enchantment by David Liss. This one sounded like lots of fun. It takes place in Regency England and sounds like a great mix of historical fiction and fantasy.

The Language of Flowers by Venessa Diffenbaugh. A young women who lives on the street and knows the Victorian language of flowers helps others with the flowers she chooses for them. Then a stranger helps her to question what's missing from her life.


The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. A circus arrives in town without warning. It will soon be the site of a dual between two magicians. They don't know it, but only one can survive. And they've fallen in love.

Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel. Steampunk! Zombies! Dystopia! I will definitely have to check this one out.

Marzi by Marzena Sowa. An autobiographical graphic novel about Sowa's life growing up in Poland.

So it was good, but then it ended and they had a bunch of ARCs in the corner and a crazy swarm of librarians descended upon them. The only one I wanted was Marzi. But I found myself trapped against the table and I couldn't get out. It was starting to hurt and I decided that being crushed to death at the Random House Fall Book Buzz was not how I wanted to die. So hopped up on the table, crawled down the length and climbed off at the other side. Sometimes drastic steps must be taken to get away from crazed librarians around free books. Scary.

Day Two: The Exhibits

We came in with a plan.  The plan was to be VERY CHOOSY when we were in the exhibit hall, because we have to fly home and there's only so much we can take.  Guess how well that worked?  Yeah.  Not very.  We have no self control when it comes to new, shiny, free books.  None at all.  I didn't do so badly yesterday.  I kept it to seven.  This morning...well.  I don't want to talk about it.  Anna and my prized ARC, much like last year, is Goliath by Scott Westerfeld. 

Author run-down!

ALA: Opening Session

After an hour of thank yous, we finally got to our opening speaking, who was Dan Savage. He spoke about the It Gets Better Project, which he said relates to libraries because it's about information and access, things that are near and dear to our librarian hearts.

Dan explained why it was difficult for his parents when he came out. It didn't just mean he was gay. It meant he would never marry, never have children,never be a marine. Although he noted that he could be a marine now, but has no interest in it. He does a lot of speaking at universities, but realized that where he really needed to be speaking was at middle schools and high schools. Places, of course, he would never be permitted to speak. Dan then realized that in the age of YouTube,he didn't NEED to wait for permission. He could just do it. So he and his husband decided to start a YouTube channel that would tell young people not about the bullying, but about the joy. That there was something to look forward too.

Dan spoke some about how joy isn't always easy to talk about. First of all, he's Catholic, and if God hears you tailing about joy he'll take it from you. Dan and his husband found how difficult it was to focus on the joy when they did their first take of the video. They found they were talking about their bullying experiences, not the joy. So they tried again. They asked other people to make their own it gets better videos, and hoped they would get 100. By the end of the week, they had 650, which was the limit for a new YouTube channel user. Then a Google engineer dumped it up so they could have 5,000, and more and more came in of people sharing their stories.

Dan has an It Gets Better book coming out. He said, "I'm a print guy. I think books are magic." He knows how to get librarians to applaud. He wants to challenge schools with the book, to have it on the shelves, to talk about it, since schools are the sites of most of the bullying that goes on.

Librarians are doing something very similar to what Dan did. We help kids find the books they need, whether their parents want them to read those books or not.

Dan was really excellent. He was funny and engaging and sincere. A good start to the conference!

We have landed!

We are finally here in New Orleans. After being awake since five this morning we have made the hike to the conference hall(though it's really more like a small city), and are now sitting at the opening session. We are listening to the ALA president thank pretty much the entire world for making this happen. We walked in on a weird music video that seemed very creative but kind of crazy. More later!

P.S. Send out good karma my way, it seems I am losing my voice and Arianna and I have our presentation Sunday! Eep!