2012 ALA Annual: Wrapping Up An Experience Not to Forget

This is the second time I’ve had the opportunity to attend an American Library Association event and it was every bit as wonderful as the last time I went. Obviously, I’m not a librarian and as such I feel extremely grateful to these wonderfully hardworking individuals and excited about having these opportunities to discuss our shared passion for books. This year the event happened close to home in Anaheim California which made it very convenient to attend one day of the event as well as an evening meet-up of fellow Middle Grade book supporters.

Now, before I get started with all the fun details of the weekend, let me apologize to everyone…not only is this post going to be ridiculously long and chock full of pictures, but you’ll also have to endure a number of photos of yours truly. Sorry about that!

First up was the Middle Grade Meet-Up hosted by none other than one of my favorite publishers, Walden Pond Press, and also a favorite blogger/librarian friend of mine, Mary Ann Scheuer from Great Kids Books. Thank you! This was a blast! It only lasted a couple of hours and even though there were a relatively manageable group of friends I still didn’t get to chat with everyone or take pictures of everyone I wanted to. Next time perhaps! Here are a few pictures from the evening:

Megan aka PoseySessions from Braun Books, a fabulous book store in Cedar City Utah! Megan and I have known each other for years now online and we finally were able to meet! She’s incredible, sassy and so smart about books. Love her!

Mary Ann Scheuer from Great Kids Books!

Author of the recently published Postcards from Pismo, Michael Scotto!

Kellie from Walden Pond Press, myself and my wonderful hubby who also attended the event.

Lastly, that night I was able to spend time chatting with middle grade authors, Kim Baker and Kevin Emerson (The Lost Code). Oddly enough, throughout the entire time I was at ALA I saw Kim at nearly every place I went it seemed, but we somehow didn’t manage to take a picture together! What’s up with that Kim? The next time we see each other this is a must do! Kim’s debut middle grade novel Pickle: The (Formerly) Anonymous Prank Club of Fountain Point Middle School comes out in September from Roaring Book Press/Macmillan and I can’t wait to read it!

Kevin was fantastic! And I’m thrilled to have had the chance to meet him especially since he has a new middle grade novel from Walden Pond Press coming out in January 2013. It sounds wonderful (well, everything from WPP is amazing really) and just yesterday they shared a sneak peek of the ARC cover for The Fellowship for Alien Dectection:

I’m obviously thrilled! This is absolutely a book that needs to be on your to-read lists as soon as you can possibly add it!

After the evening meet-up was over we headed back to my hubby’s parents and slept for a few hours before making the trek back to the actual event. Most of the day was spent on the exhibit hall floor chatting with fellow bloggers, favorite authors, publishers and of course librarians! This was truly what I attended ALA for. Though the books being offered were appealing, my primary goal in attending was to become more involved on a personal level with the wonderful people I interact with everyday online. Which is most likely why I have very few ARCs, a few purchased books and a very very long post filled with some of my favorite pictures ever.

Photos from left to right:

• Author E.M. Kokie, her debut novel Personal Effects was one that I reviewed just a few weeks ago and adored!
• Author Gigi Amateau, whose book Come August, Come Freedom will be released in September. It’s a beautifully told book and I cannot wait to share my review!
• Jon Scieszka, who I also saw at BEA and he mentioned again at ALA how much he loved the interview he had with the Turkeybird! I’m so glad he was at ALA because I forgot to snap a picture at BEA. I was even more thrilled to see him again when he instantly remembered who I was and said again, “That Turkeybird interview was the best interview I’ve ever done!” Wow! Yay! Such an honor to meet Jon. He’s amazing, hilarious and completely down to earth.
• Mo Willems, again another author I met at BEA and was too star-struck to snap a photo. Yay! for ALA and reconnecting!
• Author/Illustrator Scott Nash whom I actually met in NY when I was invited to a dinner with Candlewick Press. Of course I forgot to bring a camera, not exactly the right setting, but this was even better. Scott is such a wonderful person, author, illustrator. It was an unbelievable experience being able to chat with both him and Laura Amy Schlitz at that dinner in NY and I was thrilled to meet up with him again. His new and marvelous middle grade novel The High Skies Adventures of Blue Jay the Pirate comes out in September; it’s packed with adventure and heart, I loved it!
• Author Marissa Meyer, whose novel Cinder came out last year and the sequel Scarlet just had it’s big cover reveal with USA Today! She was such a treat to meet and even remembered who I was a-midst her now millions of fans. I was floored! While stopping to say hi to her I also ran into the fabulous publicist for Macmillan Kids/Roaring Book Pres, Ksenia. That was a wonderful surprise too! Who knew?! I’m just thrilled I got the chance to meet everyone in person finally!

After all of that running around and craziness the end of the day was near. So, after a long day we went to dinner. All day long I was fortunate enough to hang out with this fabulous group:

Yep, Amy from My Friend Amy and Melissa from One Librarian’s Book Reviews! How lucky am I?! Both are long time friends online and I actually went to the last ALA event in San Diego with Amy, but this was the first time I was able to meet Melissa. It was fantastic! The three of us, along with mine and Melissa’s husbands had a great dinner together and were later joined by the brilliant author, Laura Harrington. Laura wrote one of my favorite books last year (well, maybe ever actually), Alice Bliss. Meeting Laura at the end of the day was the icing on the cake. She was someone I’d wanted to meet for a very long time and in person she’s even more lovely than I could have imagined. It was such a treat to sit down with her for a bit a chat about what’s coming up, including a possible musical version of Alice Bliss!

Overall the 2012 ALA Annual event was incredible! Despite all the recent talk online about the event and whether bloggers should be allowed to attend (read Amy’s post for more details, it’s by far my favorite), I’d have to say that my experience was astounding. Did I walk away with “free” books? Yes, but I’ve never thought of receiving a book from a publisher as “free” and being as I didn’t intend to take more than I knew I could reasonable review I feel pretty good about the few books I took. More importantly what I truly walked away with was an incredible respect for a fantastic educational event and some of the most unforgettable experiences I’ve had with more authors and friends than I’d be able to meet in one place, ever. There is a chance I’ll be attending in Seattle for Mid-Winter and thanks to Drea from Book Blather with her post about becoming an ALA member I’ll be able to attend as a member as well! I can’t wait and I hope to see some of you there!