checkers65477 | ALA! Pt. 1 (Reply)

This post is long overdue, and many have heard some of my stories by now, but I promised a post about the ALA Annual Conference and here it is.

Driving in DC reminded me that I am very happy to live in my smallish city where it isn't hard to get around, and parking at your hotel doesn't cost $23.00 a day, and the hotels don't charge for wireless internet ($12.95 for 24 hours, noon to noon only), or for WiFi in the lobby ($5.95 for 4 hours, like I want to sit in the lobby for four hours), or for every little thing. But my city doesn't have a view like this, does it? Or this. On the other hand, it doesn't have a weird guy dressed in a polka dot suit who does tv commercials and who was randomly walking down the street being chased by a librarian with a camera. Man, he was like the wind.

In case you didn't know (and why would you?), more than 28.600 people attended the conference. I always suspected the stereotype of how librarians dress exists for a reason, and it does. I have seldom seen such strange attire. On the whole, people were more professionally dressed than I expected. But I saw more than one man in a seersucker suit.  Lots of polyester and plenty of sandals with black socks.

We got up early on Saturday and were at the Convention Center in time to be at the vendor's exhibits when they opened. When I came to the escalator that took me to the exhibit floor it was as if I could hear a heavenly chorus singing. It was beautiful. Of course, what they would have been singing was, "Free stuff. Lots of Free Stuff." Librarians love the free shit.  That afternoon I was smart and brought my ~~dork luggage~~ rolling backpack because I had so much stuff by then I couldn't possibly carry it all.

I went to several of the sessions over the weekend and found some to be excellent and some to be no better than the staff development my school district's media group offers. One of the former was on audiobooks and Judy Blume, John Green ( ♥ ) and Bruce Coville spoke. I discovered something about myself. I was starstruck by the authors and found that I could hardly emit a coherent sentence to any of them.

I got signed books and/or autographs from Walter Dean Myers, Avi, Laurie Halse Anderson, Michael Hoeye, Gennifer Choldenko, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Jerry Spinelli, Mitali Perkins, Deborah Wiles, and Lois Lowry. Signed copies of The Giver!

I was able to get Advance Reading Copies of books by Jordan Sonnenblick, Tanith Lee, Gennifer Choldenko, Deborah Wiles, Avi, Cornelia Funke, Mike Lupica, Ann Rinaldi, Carolyn Mackler, K. L. Going, E.L. Konigsburg, Michael Hoeye, L. A. Meyer (a new sequel to Bloody Jack), Chris Crutcher, Ursula K. Le Guin (companion to Gifts and Voices), Walte Dean Myers, and the latest catering mystery by Diane Mott Davidson. I snagged an ARC of Gail Carson Levine's new book for CC. I got a signed copy of Starting With Alice for Taylor and spoke with the lady who was there when the darling cover was shot. I scored some Harry Potter stuff and a John Green-signed mp3 audiobook of An Abundance of Katherines that I'm going to give to Anniemal, along with one of the signed Givers. I met

sdn , which was fun. *waves*

I heard two of the auditorium speakers. Judy Blume was a phenomenal speaker. She warned the audience at the beginning that she was bound to get choked up during her talk, and as she told us about her life and career she laughed and cried. She made us laugh and cry, too. Julie Andrews was enchanting. There was a montage of her film career that was great fun, then she spoke about children's books and literacy. She still has her lovely speaking voice and it is difficult to believe she is in her 70s.

Tomorrow I'll continue with tall tales of the YA Author Breakfast, the Newbery Banquet and the Printz Reception.