Highlights from ALA Annual 2014

I'm happy to report that I'm back from Vegas, and in fact, I've never been happier to be back from a place in my life. I'm simply not meant for desert climes. Still, armed with sunblock, water, and cardigans (for the overzealous AC, you understand), I did have a rollicking good time at the ALA Annual Conference. Here are some highlights:

It WAS slots a fun walking down the Las Vegas Strip.

I attended my first Guerrilla Storytime, sharing program tips and techniques with other storytime providers in an informal, improvisational, and interactive setting. So excited to bring this back to the North Country!

Tried very hard not to pick up too many books from the exhibit hall, but apparently not hard enough. Ended up having to buy a small suitcase to get them all back home. Some folks ship theirs back, but I don't mind an excuse for new luggage. I'll be giving away most of these books throughout the summer, but definitely kept a few for myself.

Got to meet so many authors and illustrators, including Jonathan Auxier, Margi Preus, Kadir Nelson, Melissa Sweet, Mac Barnett, Jon Klassen, Nick Bruel, Yuyi Morales, and more! Got to sit next to Peter Sis at a dinner, and tried to help him fix his glasses, from which a lens spontaneously popped out.

Got to meet so many LIBRARIANS! (Some in real life, some via Twitter.) Tried to stay chilled out while talking to Abby the Librarian, who is basically my hero.

Met with the Sibert committee, which I can't tell you about at all, but I'm hoping that you'll be intrigued by my silence and will, as a result, seek out all the great informational books you can find.

Attended the acceptance speeches for the Newbery, Caldecott, Sibert, and Carnegie awards. Cried during Kate DiCamillo's speech, and I was certainly not alone. Laughed during the Carnegie speech, where 'Whack a Duck!' became the unofficial catchphrase for the rest of the ALSC events and meetings at the conference.

Went to sessions on rural and tribal libraries and RA for young adult nonfiction and listened to lectures by Amy Dickinson and Anna McQuinn.

Ran into one of my former landlords (wait what?), but also had an unexpected interlude with a stranger:

I'm sitting in a chilly, deserted hallway, reading the last twenty pages of my book, when I see - out of the corner of my eye - a man approaching me at a good clip. I look up. He looks remarkably like Daniel Handler. He takes hold of my book and says that he has to know what I'm reading. (It was North and South.) "Gaskell's good," he says, in a voice that sounds remarkably like the narrator of The Composer is Dead, before breezing past me toward the ballroom.

If I have, in fact, met Lemony Snicket, I wouldn't have wanted to meet him any other way than in a deserted hallway outside a ballroom, leaving me with a feeling of uncertainty about whether or not I'd met him at all. 

And that's pretty much the ALA ballgame. Looking forward to Midwinter in Chicago!