Saturday 6/28

I attended the AASL President's program, which you can read about in another post. I left a little early to allow time to get to the YALSA Margaret A. Edwards luncheon where an author, and his/her specific work, is honored for its popularity over a period of time. This year's recipient was Orson Scott Card for his books "Ender's Game" and "Ender's Shadow." I had never read his books, but since I'm a YALSA member and like meeting and learning about authors, I had bought a ticket to attend.

A free copy of "Ender's Game" was part of some of the freebies given out to all attendees, and I noticed it had been written in 1977. When Orson spoke, he declared that he couldn't believe he'd won for a Young Adult book because he'd never written a Young Adult book. He said his intended audience for the books was adults, and he had the main character be young so that the adults could reminisce back to their childhoods. His speech discussed his ensuing analysis of his writing and the reasons why it has been popular to Young Adult readers. He shared letters he'd gotten over the years from both adults, young readers and Young Adult readers telling him how the book had made them become a reader and how they read it over and over and over and over.

Afterwards, he signed some books before his scheduled book signing in the exhibit. When he signed my copy, I admitted that I had not read it but that he had inspired me to read it. He laughed and told me not to tell him if I didn't like it.

I spent some time in the exhibits, which is also described in another post. Besides mailing myself 2 boxes of ARC's and free hardcover and paperback books, I had a chance to chat with Laurie Halse Anderson when she signed a copy of "Twisted" for me. My friend and fellow REFORMA member and CAYASC chair Lucia Gonzalez , along with illustrator Lulu Delacre, signed her recently released children's book for me "The Storyteller's Candle." It is a bilingual book, and is the first children's book to be written about Pura Belpre, NYC's first Puerto Rican librarian. The Pura Belpre award is annually awarded by ALSC to an outstanding Latino/Latina writer. Lulu has recently released her first YA book, and slipped me a copy of it to review for YALSA, which I'll do when I return back home.

I also met Megan McDonald, author of the Judy Moody books, and had her sign a couple of her books for me. Everytime I meet an author, I photograph them and/or me with them. In my future library, these photos will be set up alongside the author's books to show the human aspect of a book.

I attended the Opening Session with Ron Reagan, political analysist and son of Ronald Reagan, speaking on the topic "What is going on in Washington?!" He discussed the upcoming election, as well as the pros and cons of each of the candidates, including jokes and tongue in cheek remarks throughout his presentation. His comments were in turn humorous, insightful, depressing and thought provoking.

Last on the agenda was a night at Disneyland. I logged over 22,000 steps on my pedometer and am exhausted. I am reminded of a speaker at the Institute who said that during the conference "sleep is overrated." She wasn't kidding!