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In my musings about BEA, I forgot to state one thing. For us librarians, the truth is, ALA is better (though if you can do both, don't let me stop you)! BEA is a huge affair, with 25,000 people at the Javitts Center, all clamoring over books at the publishers' booths, drooling over authors doing signings (500 of them!), collecting free books and galleys (see, that's one place you can get some galleys), meeting with editors, and doing major amounts of schmoozing. It was exciting, but here's the rub. There were so many people cramming the aisles, it was hard to work your way from one booth to the next. Though there was a children's area in the basement-- can someone explain why we always get relegated to the nether regions, even when there aren't any actual children making noise there?--where many of the publishers were, and it wasn't as crazy there. I went specifically to look at all the new books on display so I could see what review copies I was missing, what was coming out in Fall, what the trends were, and talk with editors and publicists about what they were touting as the Next Best Thing. Quite a few of the publishers I wanted to see were not exhibiting at BEA. Too expensive, maybe. And then I walked into the mega-Random House booth. I looked around, bewildered. They had lots of space, tables, posters, and a line of people waiting to get a book signed. "Where are the children's books?" I asked a disinterested looking exhibitor. "We didn't bring any actual books," she said, offhandedly. "And why wouldn't you bring any actual books to a book show," I asked incredulously. "Well, our surveys show people don't care about looking at our books. They just want meetings and autographed books," she said. Are these people insane? Who exactly were they polling? Not the thousands of librarians who were there. Not reviewers like me. Not people who come to shows like this because they love, well, BOOKS, and can't get enough of them. Sad to say, several of the big publishers had no actual books. Hyperion had some books, tossed onto a display--there were exactly 3 fall titles included. Gee, thanks, guys. Guess they didn't want us to get too excited or anything. Weird. Now that's not to say there were no books at BEA. I spent a very enjoyable half hour going through all the new books from Marshall Cavendish with one of my very favorite author/editors, Margery Cuyler. And a young publicist at Candlewick took a half hour to show me everything new, which I mightily enjoyed. I hung out with one of my favorite marketing guys, Jason Wells, at Abrams for a while, and found out what color the cover of the new Wimpy Kid book will be this fall (nope, not tellin'.) And I had lots of terrific conversations with editors and marketing folks at Scholastic, Chronicle, and Lerner, to name just a few. And I met too many unemployed folks from publishers-- they're laying off so many wonderful people in this crummy economy, it just breaks your heart. See, I decided to just come to BEA this year instead of ALA, since I didn't really have time to do both. And while I'm not a bit sorry I went, I sure didn't get to see everything I came to see. Which is what I LOVE about ALA. The exhibits are crammed with kids' books from almost every publisher you can name. I will miss it muchly this year. I'll miss the Notables Committee book discussion (ooohhh), the Newbery-Caldecott dinner (sniff), the sheer fun of being amongst my peeps, LIBRARIANS, for 3 glorious days (sob), and getting to hang out with my ALA and LM_NET friends (waily waily). So my advice to you, if you're thinking of flying or making a big trip is GOETH TO ALA AND ENJOYETH YOURSELF. You won't regret it. (Even though IRA has WAY more workshoppy programs with authors and such. Sorry ALA, but they do, and you should, too. I'm just saying. Just a nudge, if anyone's listening.) It's just plain fun (and tax deductible, too!) to hang out in beautiful Chicago for a weekend, not to mention the Art Institute, a dino named Sue, and that great architectural boat tour. You deserve it! Judy Judy Freeman Children's Literature Consultant Reviewer for www.READKIDDOREAD.com Author of Books Kids Will Sit Still For 3 (Libraries Unlimited, 2006; www.LU.com) and Once Upon a Time: Using Storytelling, Creative Drama, and Reader's Theater with Children in Grades K-6 (2007) 65 North Sixth Avenue Highland Park, NJ 08904 732-572-5634 / BKWSSF@aol.com www.JudyReadsBooks.com ************** Stay connected and tighten your budget with a great mobile device for under $50. Take a Peek! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100122638x1221845911x1201401556/aol?redir=http://www.getpeek.com/aol) -------------------------------------------------------------------- Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law. 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