Just got back at 1 a.m. this morning (my birthday!)
from ALA Seattle. What a (mostly) wonderful week!
I need to swear off food for the next month, since
I ate everything that came my way there, and Seattle
is no slouch when it comes to fabulous restaurants and food.
Ah, the dungeness crabs and cioppino and view of
Puget Sound and snow-capped mountains
(at Ray's Boathouse), the olive bread and the
warm doughnuts (at Dahlia Lounge), the cod
with sweet potato hash and the ginger snaps
(at Etta's by the Pike Market),
the crab soup and people-watching (at the Union Square Grill),
not to mention all the appetizers and desserts at
publishers' cocktail parties, which I sampled with abandon.
I restrained myself and didn't eat a piece of the
Cat in the Hat cake at the Random House party,
but WOW! You shoulda seen it--a huge blue sheet
cake of the cover of the book. And another big cake
that looked like a 3-dimensional fishbowl with the
orange fish popping out of it. Extremely cool pastry.
ALA is a giant book party. Well, not nearly as big as the
Summer conference, which will be in Washington D.C.,
where there are zillions of authors autographing left and
right, but still pretty fun. Seattle was teeming with
librarians. It was bursting with book-totin',
eyeglass-wearin' librarians on every street,
in every restaurant, and even in the Seattle airport
and on the plane back to Newark last night,
where folks were reading like it was going out of style.
I spent much of my time at the exhibits, looking at
all the new 2007 titles in the publishers' booths,
talking with editors, chewing the fat with librarian
pals. It's so much fun to be around other book
fanatics, all speculating on what the award books
are going to be or deconstructing each title after
yesterday's announcements.
I'm on the 2008 Sibert Committee
(for informational books--like the nonfiction Newbery),
and our committee of 9 was scheduled to meet for
our first get-together to go over rules and procedures.
On Saturday, I went out to lunch and then raced back
to the convention center to get to the 1:30 meting
in time. Up three flights in the convention center,
puffing & panting, I found the room, and flung open
the door. Everyone looked up at me when I came in.
"Hmmm. Why don't any of these faces look familiar?"
I wondered and then said, "Uh, is this the Sibert
Committee meeting?" They shook their heads no.
Whoops! I slinked (slunk?) out of the room and
checked the schedule by the door. I had the time
just perfect, but I was a mere 24 hours early.
A little bit embarrassing . . .
At the Awards meeting yesterday, there were hundreds
of people in the room, waiting anxiously for
the announcements. It's like the Oscar
announcements, without the Hollywood glitz.
Librarians tend not to show a lot of cleavage
or wear 4" heels, and there was only one person,
on a little platform in the middle of the ballroom,
filming the event. People Magazine was not there
ready to interview the committee chairs.
But for us librarians, it's a pretty exciting thing.
The Caldecott wasn't a surprise, except that it was
Wiesner's 4th win. He won a silver Honor for his first
book, and now he's got 3 golds. (Historians--
is that the most ever? Marcia Brown also won 3,
I believe.) The book, Flotsam--which takes place at
the Jersey shore on Long Beach Island, for all you
Jersey girls and boys to crow about, hooray!--is just
fabulous. So much to look at and think about.
It was one of my choices (though I'm very
disappointed not to see some other huge faves
of mine get medals, including John, Paul, George
& Ben by Lane Smith; Adele and Simon by Barbara
McClintock; An Egg Is Quiet, illus. by Sylvia Long;
and Library Lion, illus. by Kevin Hawkes),
and I think it will be beloved by kids.
I started The High Power of Lucky,
our new Newbery, this morning, and so far,
I'm a bit underwhelmed, but hope it will pick
up. I, too, wanted to see Edward Tulane get
a well-deserved gold, but it did win the Boston
Globe-Horn Book Award this year, and that's
no small thing. I was thrilled to see Rules win
an honor--I adored that book but never
expected it to win anything--and was so
proud to see Jenni Holmes win her second
Newbery Honor for Penny from Heaven
(which is set in--TA-DAA--New Jersey!).
I was on the 2000 Newbery Committee
that gave her her first silver for
Our Only May Amelia. She's a terrific writer.
(Have YOU read her Babymouse books--
graphic novel-ettes-- yet? No? What are
you waiting for? Your kids will swoon.)
And I was very surprised that Lois Lowry's Gossamer
didn't get a silver. I haven't read Hattie Big Sky
yet--it's on my pile for the day, though.
One thing that struck me was that all 4 of the
Newbery winners were girl books through and through.
I'd've loved to have seen at least one book that was
boy-centric. I know it's not how the committee works,
but it's still disappointing. I haven't been in love with
a Newbery since Despereaux, in 2004.
Team Moon was on my list this year, too,
and I was excited to see it win the Sibert.
Very cool book.
Life is good. Lisa Von Drasek is still on the
ballot for the 2009 Caldecott this spring--
and you'd have to look far and wide to find a
candidate more perfect for that (or any) committee.
And I'm still on the 2008 Sibert Committee,
and starting to contemplate the many boxes of
2007 books piling up in the basement.
If you read any new nonfiction that you love,
published in 2007, please send me a note so
I can be sure to read it, too.
It's going to be a very busy year!
In between all the book reading, over the next
two months, I'll be doing workshops, seminars,
and speeches in: NJ, AL, LA, MS, FL, TX, NC,
AK, NV, CA, HI, MT, WY, CO, SD, and
ending up in Bangkok, even. Whew. I'm tired
just thinking about all that flying, but it should
also be a whole lot of fun. If you come to any
of my programs, be sure to come up & say hi
& tell me what you've been reading.
Wanna be on a cool committee one of these days?
Join ALA & ALSC (www.ala.org), and
volunteer your services. You just never know . . .
Time to go sleep off the jet lag!
Judy Freeman
Children's Literature Consultant
"Wild About Books" columnist, School Library Media Activities Monthly
Author of the all new Books Kids Will Sit Still For 3
(Libraries Unlimited, 2006; www.LU.com)
65 North Sixth Avenue
Highland Park, NJ 08904
732-572-5634 / BKWSSF@aol.com
www.JudyReadsBooks.com
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