Keynote: Michael Dahl
So after waking up at 5:30 this morning, and an hour and a half commute, Michael Dahl was the perfect way to wake me up. He's from MN, so bonus points there, and is a big supporter of graphic novels, so much like Lane Smith we're big friends. He works for Stonearch Books and has written several mystery books and a hi-lo series called The Library of Doom, which FYI looks fantastic. Most of his talk was about the influence of libraries and librarians on his life. How libraries "found (him), at the same time (he) was looking for it." He talked about how the amazing power of a story led to his future choice of career, and that books should always show that there was thought and effort behind them because kids can tell. Kids can pick up on the effort put in took to make it and it can increase their self-worth, and that librarians can guide them to those books. Dahl says that librarians help equate reading with pleasure, helping students plow through reading when it must be done for assignments.
"Save a librarian, save the world."
