Right on the heels of the ALA Annual Conference at the end of June, my library hosted a visit with Jodi Picoult and her daughter, Samantha Van Leer to celebrate the release of their co-written young adult novel, Between the Lines. I had the honor of introducing them to an eager audience of hundreds.
I was so impressed and inspired by Jodi and Samantha! They were both so nice and down-to-earth. I loved hearing about how they collaborated on their writing: Samantha had the idea for Between the Lines one day while she was daydreaming in class. When she pitched it to her mom, Jodi thought they should write it together. Though they had a few differences of opinion (Samantha wanted the prince to be blond, but Jodi won out with black hair), they were remarkably in tune as they wrote.
Samantha noted that her biggest challenge during the writing process was staying focused, and that her mother helped her stay on track. Jodi stated that she really valued the chance to share the writing experience with her daughter, as writing can often be a solitary, isolating activity. She's excited to share the experience of going on the book tour together, too.
One of my favorite parts of their talk was Jodi's advice for aspiring writers in dealing with writer's block: Just write every day, even if it's garbage. "You can fix garbage. You can't fix a blank page."
Part of the fun of any author event is seeing their devoted fans. I was so charmed by these three girls who showed up in custom t-shirts proclaiming their love for Jodi Picoult! This poster is covered with quotes from Jodi's books-- the girl who made it said these quotes changed her life, and asked Jodi to sign it. How amazing is that?
Since this event was held on the release date of Between the Lines, I didn't have a chance to read it beforehand... but after hearing them talk about the book, I am especially looking forward to it.
Yes, it's been a while. But that's okay-- I was off having an amazing time at the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim at the end of June. I'm still sort of buzzing with excitement over the intensity of it all. As the chair of YALSA's Conference Marketing and Local Arrangements Committee, I felt actively involved and engaged in the conference, and came away energized by the fantastic connections I made. I got to meet so many new people, and was especially pleased to meet librarians, authors, and publishers I had only interacted with on Twitter or listservs prior to the conference. It's refreshing to bring the virtual into the real!
I hardly know where to begin, or how to put the vibrancy of this conference into words. Here are just a few highlights of my ALA12 experience:
My committee work
After working with the other members of the Conference Marketing and Local Arrangements Committee all year to promote YALSA's activities at the conference, talk up the local area, and organize on-site assistance at conference sessions, it was so rewarding to finally see our planning come to fruition. I was practically overjoyed to see my committee members had printed out and were using the meticulously color-coded schedule spreadsheet detailing our commitments.
If a future ALA conference comes to your neck of the woods, I highly recommend serving on a Local Arrangements committee. It's a really enjoyable way to get involved.
The Newbery Caldecott Banquet
I love the energy that fills the room when hundreds of people come together to celebrate children's literature. I was very honored to be a guest of School Library Journal at this year's banquet, and it was a magical evening. I thoroughly enjoyed the chance to meet some of my fellow SLJ reviewers, and put faces to names of the wonderful editors I've been working with via email since I started reviewing for SLJ. It was a truly memorable evening.
Plus, the event program was adorable! You take the band off, unfold it, and out pops a red paper ball (a la the Caldecott winning title, A Ball for Daisy)! My 3 year old would love it. Sadly, he won't see it until he's at least 18 because it's a treasured souvenir from a very lovely evening, and there is no way I'm handing it over to him to be destroyed. Sorry, kiddo! This is mama's toy.
The Little, Brown dance party
Little, Brown is one of my very favorite publishers-- and now I can add "throws a mean party" to the list of reasons I love them. I was thrilled to be there to celebrate Libba Bray's upcoming Fall title, The Diviners.
The music was amazing-- old-school '70s, '80s, and '90s songs that had the crowd cheering for every song and dancing like crazy. If you have the opportunity to be invited to a Little, Brown event... don't miss it!
The Odyssey Award Program and Reception
The Odyssey Award is given annually to the producer of the best audiobook for youth, available in English in the US. I am a huge fan of audiobooks, but I didn't realize how awesome it would be to actually see the audiobook narrators read aloud at this program. I was blown away, for example, by the physicality Kirby Heyborne put into his characters while reading from Rotters, by Daniel Kraus. As his voice shifted from character to character, so did his posture, his movements-- truly fascinating. And after seeing Wendy Carter read aloud, I'm now enjoying the audiobook of Young Fredle, by Cynthia Voigt, on my daily commute.
YA Authors Coffee Klatch
Last time I attended this event at ALA 2008, I wasn't involved in any way, but this time I was there to assist as a member of YALSA's Local Arrangements Committee. I helped check in the authors as they arrived and waited in the green room for the event to begin, and the enthusiasm was high. Just as the librarians and other book lovers who attended the event were looking forward to chatting with their favorite authors, the authors were genuinely eager and excited about the chance to connect with readers face-to-face. It was fun seeing the other side of the event!
The Printz Reception
Just as the Newbery Caldecott Banquet is a wonderful celebration of children's literature, the Printz Reception celebrates the best in young adult literature. The speeches were amazing-- especially Daniel Handler's accordion serenade.
John Corey Whaley (who won this year's Printz award for Where Things Come Back) gave the most heartwarming, delightful speech. He seems like a really sweet, genuine person. I was glad to meet him!
Best Fiction for Young Adults In this session, the BFYA committee sits at tables in the front of the room with laptops, taking notes as teen readers step up to a microphone and give quick reviews of books from the BFYA nominations list. The teens are selected months ahead of time, and their preparation really showed. They were articulate, honest, and insightful. One of the teens who spoke was Ishita ofThe Reading Fish, who I know from Twitter-- she rocked it! I really enjoyed hearing what these young readers did and didn't like about the nominated titles. I use the BFYA list extensively in making purchasing decisions for my library's teen fiction collection, so I found it really interesting and enlightening to witness this portion of the BFYA process. Sitting in on this session definitely made me want to serve on the committee someday.
The Graphic Novel stage
This stage dedicated to comics and graphic novels was one of the new features of ALA Annual this year-- an awesome addition, if you ask me! I attended Gene Yang's talk on Asian Americans and Air Benders. Since we interviewed Gene via Skype earlier this year for the Authors are ROCKSTARS! podcast, it was great to meet him in person. I really enjoyed hearing him speak about the history of Asians in comics, and his involvement in the Avatar: The Last Airbender graphic novels. He announced that he's signed on to do three more volumes after "The Promise" storyline wraps up! (I may have squealed aloud.)
The Exhibit Hall
Although my schedule was pretty jam-packed, I did have some time to walk around the exhibit hall.
The publishers get creative with ARC displays - this is a tower of The Fire Chronicle ARCs,
the highly-anticipated sequel to The Emerald Atlas, by John Stephens.
My to-read list is definitely full from here till early 2013, thanks to the ARCs I was able to pick up.
Treasures I can't wait to read and share with my library teens!
Another highlight of the Exhibit Hall was all of the author signings. I met Allen Say! I reviewed his beautifully illustrated memorir, Drawing From Memory, for School Library Journal last year, and it was a pleasure to purchase a signed copy and have the chance to tell him in person how much I enjoyed it.
I'm still reflecting on all the wonderful experiences I had at this year's conference. One side effect is that I want to join and get actively involved with more ALA divisions and organizations than I actually have time for! I'm hoping to continue volunteering for YALSA committees, and possibly attend YALSA's YA Lit Symposium in St. Louis this Fall. We'll see!
Last week, my library was honored to host a visit with Caldecott winning author and artist, Brian Selznick. I reviewed his latest novel, Wonderstruck, last month. Hearing him speak about the incredibly thoughtful and detailed process that went into the creation of that amazing book made me want to read it again! Some interesting facts:
The format of this particular book (two stories, one told in images and one told in words) came to him before the actual plot specifics.
His artistic process includes making not only storyboard-like sketches of each image that eventually goes into the finished book, but also (adorable!) little booklets of every image sequence with tiny thumbnail sketches, so he can get a feel for the flow of the drawings before he finalizes them.
The final drawings he creates are 3x5 inches each, and are enlarged for the book.
Brian Selznick is a fantastic speaker, and he captivated an audience of hundreds. In addition to talking about Wonderstruck, he shared some information about the upcoming screen adaptation of The Invention of Hugo Cabret. He reported that he is very pleased with "Hugo" the movie, so fans can go to the theaters with confidence. I can't wait to see it!
It was such a pleasure to meet Brian and tell him in person how much I enjoy his work. I assisted with the Newbery-Caldecott banquet in 2008, when he gave his acceptance speech for the Caldecott medal. I told him I'm hoping to see him up there again next year for Wonderstruck!
