Sunday Adventures

This morning, I went to YALSA's Coffee Klatch, which is like speed dating except you get authors to visit your table every 5 minutes. I met some well known authors like Richard Peck and Garret Freymann-Weyr, then had some newbies come to the table. Afterwards, all 35+ authors gathered for a photo op, at which time I met Jacqueline Woodson, David Levithan, Simone Elkeles, Yasmin Shiraz and others. My students will be so thrilled, because I have a group of girls who absolutely LOVE Jacqueline Woodson's books. This is always a great YALSA event, and I look forward to it every year.

I spent some time with Yasmin afterwards as we struck up a conversation as we waited for the buses, and wound up keeping each other company in the expo until I left to attend the Pura Belpre Celebration. I am on the Celebration Committee and was assigned to be a greeter, and was absolutely thrilled to finally meet Francisco Jiminez, who was an honor winner this year for his book "Breaking Through." Each of the honorees and winners gave great speeches, followed by a wonderful time of entertainment by the Ballet Folklorico Company. A group of young girls dressed in authentic folk costumes from Mexico beautifully danced for us.

Next stop was the convention center, where I laughed and cheered at the annual Demco Book Cart Drill Team Championships. Mo Willems and Jon Scieszka were co-hosts and their combined humor had us in stitches the entire time. My favorite team made up of costumed Vikings danced their way to the Golden Cart win, and I got to meet these two funny guys.

I had a short time to get ready for the annual REFORMA fundraiser, and danced the night away with Camila Alire and others. From there, a group of us packed ourselves into a taxi singing and laughing as we made our way back to the hotel. It reminded me of that commercial where people sing and the taxi driver puts up the radio and joins in - except this one just thought we were nuts!

We went up to the penthouse suite where ALA president Jim Rettig was having a reception, and enjoyed some time with International Librarians. The view from the balcony was spectacular, and the view of the moon reflecting off the lake was superb.

Tomorrow will be sure to have more adventures. So, until then my bed is calling....

Alma

Monday June 30

I began the day with the REFORMA membership meeting. I reported on my work with the CAYASC (Children & Young Adult Services Committee), and described what I do as the YALSA liasion for REFORMA. In addition, I gave information about my upcoming article on this brand new joint partnership which will be in the fall issue of YALS.

After the meeting, I went to the exhibit hall with several members of the REFORMA Northeast chapter to personally thank two companies who had sponsored the professional development travel scholarship I won through this chapter to attend the conference.

It was late in the morning which meant most of the freebies were gone, but I wandered for a little bit anyway. The highlight of my search was being rewarded with the ARC for M.T. Anderson's newest release - part 2 of "The Astonishing life of Octavian Nothing," another missive titled "The Kingdom on the Waves." Each conference seems to have its own "ARC Treasure." Midwinter brought me Stephenie Meyer's "The Host," and now I get this one.

From there, I went to the AASL All Conference meeting for my "Diversity in the Organization Taskforce" introductory meeting. We threw ideas back and forth on ways to encourage diverse groups within AASL to come forth and join committees, and get involved in the organization. It was easy to see why this is an issue because as I looked around the massive room filled with large round tables filled with hard working AASL members I counted 5 people of color. Four of us were at my table.

When the meeting ended at 5, I was officially "on leave," which meant I could finally join my hubby who had been patiently bee-bopping around town since he came to join me at Disneyland on Sat. We had dinner then walked around The Garden Walk, an outdoor mall a few blocks away from our hotel. My legs are exhausted from yesterday's dancefest and from all the walking these last few days, so I had to call it an early night because tomorrow "Super Tuesday," aka "The last Hurrah," will be an early morning.

Hope you guys have enjoyed learning and reading about the many ways AASL, ALA, MSLA, and other groups within the organization are working to improve life for school librarians like yourself, and will be inspired to lend a hand. As the saying goes "many hands make light work." We need your hands.

See you tomorrow!

Sunday June 29

Wow! What a day! I sat with Amy at the Coffee Klatch, sponsored by YALSA, and it was fabulous! I took photos of each of the authors at our table to add to my "bookcase." Future library = author photos + their book(s) = booktalk "real" authors to students. Afterwards, there was a large photo session where all the authors posed for the paparazzi = us! I wasn't shy about going to authors that weren't at my table & asking them to pose for photos. They were happy to comply. Thus, in addition to the ones Amy mentioned, I also got photos of Margarita Engle, Mary Pearson, Barry Lyon, Jay Asher, John Green, and Sherman Alexis.

Afterwards, I spent time at a very interesting meeting on how to help reluctant boy readers, given by CA Teacher of the Year Alan Lawrence Sitomer. Alan teaches at a predominately African American and Hispanic high school in a section outside of Los Angeles, and has a heart to reach his students with the fact that they need to get literate in order to succeed. Unfortunately, I had to leave early, and hope that someone who was there will blog about it.

I was there for 30 min. and he spent that time talking about alot of impressively sad statistics showing that African American & Hispanic students score lower than White & Asian students on their reading tests on a nationwide level. Thus, this leads to situations where these students drop out (at a rate of 1 student in the U.S. per every 9 seconds = 3000 students/day.) Without a high school diploma, poverty sets in. Poverty leads to crime & drugs which leads to jail. The cycle repeats generationally. He also gave the interesting fact that the 4th grade state reading exams are used by the Department of Correction. They use the percentages of students who score below level to forecast how many beds they'll need in the prison in 9 years. How very sad! Another sad statistic was the fact that CA spends $40,000 per year on one inmate and only $8000 per year on one student.

He begins his school year with these stats and tells his students they need to see themselves as a car, and school as a place to gas up, because it has everything they need to drive; however, they have to get out & pump. He said if they're waiting for teachers to check their gas, tire pressure & wipers, they won't get anywhere. By telling them these statistics, he wants to get a rise out of them enough for them to take ownership of their lives.

I talked with him later at the expo while he autographed his latest release "The Secret Story of Sonia Rodriguez" for me. It's a YA story about a Mexican American girl, oldest of 7 children, only one who speaks English, born in America, trying to break the cycle & go to college. It's about the challenges she faces to try and be the first in her family to live her dream. He also has a trilogy of urban fiction. I like his style.

While at the Exhibits, I also got other authors to pose for me and/or autograph their books which were either $2 or free. These included Marc Aronsen, Charles R. Smith Jr., Kathleen Krull, Anya Ulinich, Andrew Clements and Neal Shusterman. I'd call this an Author Day!

I rushed to the Pura Belpre awards, where various Honor awards for authors & illustrators were distributed, as well as the top prize to Margarita Engle, author of "The Poet Slave of Cuba" and Yuyi Morales, illustrator of "Los gatos black on Halloween." Each of the acceptance speeches were heartfelt. The presentation was sprinkled with Spanish songs sung by 3 soloists (including Yuyi) and guitar playing. The highlight of the day was a mini concert by a children's Mariachi band. There were about 20 talented, costumed kids ranging in age from about 4 to 14 wowing the audience with their vocal skills and playing of instruments from guitar to violin to trumpet. They entertained us while the audience mingled for refreshments.

I then ran to the Book Cart Drill Team Championships. It was my first time attending this, and I can't wait to see it next year. The creative way the 9 teams used bookcarts was unbelievable. There was one school librarian team, but the rest were public libraries. Dressed in fabulous costumes, acts ranged from a 007 spoof to the Beach Boys to the California raisins. The crowd favorite was a team from CA who came out as mad scientists, complete with wild wigs, lab coats and a complete chemistry set on each bookcart. They danced their way through a musical number where they poured a drink in their beakers (which began to bubble merrily) and drank it. They writhed and shrank beneath their carts, stripped their outfits and became zombies - complete with ripped clothing and ashen/bloody faces.

Suddenly Michael Jackson's "Thriller" began to play and they stepped their way, zombielike, through the song w/ their bookcarts - just like the famous video but with the carts for added flair. They brought the house down, and wound up taking home the first place Gold Cart. Mo Willems, of the "Pigeon" books fame, was MC, and was hysterical.

I had an hour and a half to get ready then I was off to the annual REFORMA fundraiser. I met Bob Roth there for a little bit. The party was stomping good, and Spanish music reigned supreme. I shimmied with Camila Alire (she loves dancing as much as I do) for almost 2 hrs before I took my first break. Meringue and Salsa were the dances of choice, and everyone had a blast, with monies going to fund REFORMA scholarships. WHAT A DAY! I danced for another 3 hrs. before I called it a night. Again, as I said before, sleep is overrated during Conference. Yawn!