ALA Conference Fun!

Had a fabulous time at the ALA conference today. Asked my publisher if I could go, and they let me have a free pass to the exhibits. It was so neat!

The highlight was at the Scholastic booth: I was waiting in line to say tell Christopher Paul Curtis what an inspiration he was to me, when I see THE BEST BAD LUCK I EVER HAD on the shelf right behind him. I kind of squeal, "That's my book" and all the people at the booth got excited. They started talking about this guy named "Steve" and how he always book talked my book to librarians and how he liked it so much and they asked me to sign a book for him. Then they wanted to take my picture to show Steve.

Then when I finally get to see Christopher Paul Curtis, I say thanks and how he inspired me and tell him about my book. So then he pulls a copy of the Scholastic shelf and asks me to sign it for him! Then he gave me an autographed copy of BUD, NOT BUDDY. It was just sooo cool!!

Lesson learned - always bring your camera to these events! I would have loved a picture.

I also came across the audio version of BEST BAD LUCK at the Random House/Listening Library booth. They asked me to sign it which was very cool.

Finally, I ran into Eileen Kreit, who's the president and publisher of Puffin Books (which is publishing the paperback version of BBL in September). She recognized my name from my name tag and came over to talk to me and told me all about how they had developed the new cover for the paperback version of BEST BAD LUCK. She just made me feel so welcome and excited about my book.

Everyone at ALA really made me feel like a star. Thank you so much!!!

So glad I went - I almost didn't because it was a crazy weekend. (Our air conditioner caught fire and we didn't have AC for three days of the latest heatwave, but that's another story.)

Stay cool!