ALA in Pictures and Lists

Everything I brought back, neatly sorted into piles. I LOVELOVELOVE my "It's A Book" bag! All that stuff on the bottom right is for you, Franki!

The bag that helped me find my new tribe when I was riding the Metro. Following this bag ensured I got on and off at the right stops.

Miscellaneous conference swag. Yes, that's a Binky the Space Cat ID lanyard and yes, I'm an official SPHDZ.

All of the books I got autographed. I'm proud to say that I brought 8 of the 14 from home. See below for more details about meeting the authors.

All the ARCs I got. I've already read Storyteller, Alvin Ho and Clementine. Franki gets first read of The Candymakers.

Bloggers I saw:

Pam of MotherReader

Christine of bestbookihavenotread

Tricia of The Miss Rumphius Effect

Laura of Writing the World for Kids

Terry of Scrub-a-Dub-Tub

Susan of Wizards Wireless (didn't get a chance to talk to her, but her post of ALA advice was priceless -- especially the part about working the bag check. My back says, "Thank you, Susan!")

Betsy of Fuse #8 (from a distance -- how could you miss those crutches?!?)

Laura of Laura's Life (I was behind her in an autographing line listening to her talk with grace and confidence about reading all of the Newberys and the pros and cons of first editions...humbling.)

More about the autographs and authors:

Jon Scieszka says thanks again for the great going away party that the Kidlitosphere threw for him when Katherine Paterson became the new Ambassador of Children's Literature.

I got to gush IN PERSON to Lynn Rae Perkins about how much I love As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth.

If I hadn't gotten Mitali Perkins' autograph of Bamboo People, I wouldn't have run into Terry and Tricia and Tanita.

Tom Angleberger still appreciates the love we had for his first book, The QuikPick Adventure Society.

Melissa Sweet was just as delightful as ever. We reminisced a bit about her recent visit to the Dublin Literacy Conference and my school.

Amy Krouse Rosenthal will be one of our speakers at the 2011 Dublin Literacy Conference. She asked me who else is speaking and **poof** my mind went blank. Amy, here's the lineup of children's authors: you, Brian Pinkney, Loren Long, and Wendy Mass.

I got to tell Margaret Read MacDonald how important her book How Many Donkeys? was to my Arabic-speaking students this year -- it's the first book we'd ever seen that had Arabic in it.

(Just wait until we get our hands on Jeannie Baker's new book Mirror, which is sort of TRI-lingual in English, Arabic, and images...I saw an advance copy and it looks FABULOUS!!)

Marilyn Singer heard about how her new Reverso poetry form inspired me and it inspired my students to invent their own poetry forms.

I got to meet Thomas Gonzalez in person (Carmen Agra Deedy, too). I interviewed him for the 14 Cows for America blog tour.

Mary Ann Hoberman found out that she's a poetry Rock Star in my classroom.

Liz Garton Scanlon is just as nice in person as she is on the blogs. What a great smile!

And finally, what an absolute delight to meet my "cousin" Tanita Davis in person. She brought me this calendar and cool Celtic-design pen all the way from Scotland! You ROCK, Cousin T!!