Shannon takes the East Coast (sort of)
Back! Good trip! Exhausted. But good. Once again I was a lame-o andforgot most of the time to take photos. Recapping book tour is so hard.A million things happen and picking out significant moments seemsimpossible and arbitrary too, and I always worry that anyone I don'tmention will feel like I consider them less significant, which isn'ttrue! So here are my few photos (mostly phone photos and so not topquality) and a few details.
In Baltimore I spoke at some schoolsand signed at the Children's Book Store. I've said it before, but Inotice a difference in all-girl schools. In general the girls there aremore confident and thoughtful, willing to venture and even makemistakes. Why do boys make us stupid?
At Politics & Prose inWashington D.C. I met this cute girl. Her awesome mom got her up at 5am and they drove 6 hours so she could come get her books signed on herbirthday.
More awesome school visits in Philadelphia. If you're part of a schooland hosting an author visit, the more prep you do, the more the kidswill get out of it. I notice HUGE (and i mean H-U-G-E) differences inthe visits between schools that prepped their kids beforehand and thosewho just threw me at them. Most students in a school won't know theauthor who is coming, and therefore won't care. At Bala Cynwyd, thelibrarians there did a ton of stuff with all the classes attending,such as presenting the reader's theater of rapunzel's revenge, handing out the Rapunzel paperdollsto color and cut, arranging times in class for kids to explore my site,etc. And it was one of the best assemblies I've ever been a part of.The kids obviously cared, were interested, asked great questions. Itwas a pleasure to present to them.
At the Baldwin School, one ofthe things they did was hold a contest for the biggest Shannon Halefan. They picked two winners from the essay entries, and these girlsgot prizes as well as introduced me for the assembly. What a great idea!
Here's an awesome photo--I'd finished my chat and was starting to signbooks at Children's Book World in Haverford, PA, and I snapped a photo.Look at those sweet faces! Aren't they gorgeous? Moments like this,looking at all those awesome people, I just can't believe how lucky Iam to be doing this job.
Thissweetie pie showed me a photo of her goose girl Halloween costume,renewing my desire for a character costume contest next year. What fun!
And here's one of them grassroots fans I was very happy to meet. I love you, Little Redders!
Really,what's better than a cozy, local children's bookstore? Children's BookWorld has been around for 20 years, and I was ruminating on all thegood they've done in that time, all the readers they've matched to theright books, and all those books that helped those readers throughtough spots. It's so encouraging. Here are some of those booksellers:Heather, Sarah, Hannah, and Hannah's sister...(sorry, forgot your name)
I don't have any photos of my visits with Barnes & Noble inFairless Hills, though I met many wonderful people. I was so happy tosee the boys from St. Andrew come to the store, and even more LittleRedders. One little girl stands out, a smart whipper snapper of about 9years who asked me 25 very intelligent questions, including, "Why doesPrincess Academy have a Newbery Honor sticker and your other onesdon't?" A very valid question indeed!
I had the great fortune toattend a lunch with Baker & Taylor, hosting many librarians, andthose of you who know me know my keen affection for librarians. I likethem an awful lot. We got to have a good laugh. Here I am spying theBaker & TAylor staff, "pretending" to be bored and confused as theyread Forest Born. I'm sure they're just pretending...
Then off to NCTE, the annual conference for teachers of English. Greatconference, though I was only there for about five hours. I spoke on apanel with Malinda Lo, Diane Zahler, and Suzanne Selfors about"fractured classics." I was the serious, erudite one.
And before going home, I did get to grab my first Philadelphia cheesestake sandwich! K, this photo isn't flattering of me, but I'm includingit because I look as tired as I felt. I didn't get to sightsee or restmuch, but I'm sure glad I went. Thanks to Bloomsbury and all youfabulous Easterners!
