ALA Annual Conference 2024 Day 2

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Saturday, June 29, 2024, was the second day of the American Library Association Annual Conference in San Diego.

The first session I attended was about selecting Board Books.

Panelists were board book authors Anne Wynter, Carole Boston Weatherford, Alisha Sevigny, and Steve Light

I liked the way they talked about joy and play in board books. Steve Light wrote his first board book (about trucks) when he imitated a boy in his class of 3-year-olds who just found joy in drawing trucks.

Board books are inherently playful, and kids play physically with the books, but also play with the language of the books. Also many board books are interactive, encouraging play. The interactive books are perfect for the wiggly ones.

Next I got in on the end of a panel of Newbery Honor winners led by Travis Jonker. I didn’t get notes written, but afterward I personally congratulated Erin Bow on her amazing book, Simon Sort of Says, and somehow we got to talking about my mathematical knitting.

Next, I went to a panel of Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors called “Chaotic Good and Lawful Evil: The Appeal of Morally Gray Characters in Science Fiction and Fantasy books.”

Here are the signed books I got after that panel ended:

The authors were O. O. Sangoyomi, Mary E. Pearson, Veronica Roth, and Yume Kitasei

Moderator: Your books are based on folklore and myth. How do they get populated with these morally ambiguous characters?

MP: Morally ambiguous characters are real, and they are us.

YK: So often retellings flip who the good guys and bad guys are and help us see more. Gives the myths a whole new life.

OS: You can also give traditional villains more of a back story, which makes the story more interesting.

VR: A quote: “Through folklore we learn about a people and what they think about humanity.” We learn from Slavic folklore that being human is a drag! Unfair stuff happens all the time. They teach us about humanity, not necessarily about morality.

Moderator to OS: The king in her Hades retelling is so convinced he’s right?

OS: That’s what drew her to the myth. She wanted to give Persephone more agency. Love bordering on obsession. Love can change people for the better or the worse.

YK: He’s a villain but not a villain. The love story is somewhat toxic, but still beautiful. He’s a foil for her journey.

Moderato to VR: Your book gets us cheering for vampires.

VR: The long history of Monster Fiction is making them sympathetic. The character is deprogrammed from brainwashing. Polish immigrants came to Chicago fleeing monsters, too. They’re just trying to survive.

YK: VR has got characters working toward opposing goals, all sympathetic, but they can’t all win.

Moderator to YK: Everyone’s hero is someone’s villain. In your book, every side has a solid reason for what they’re doing. They all have a valid point.

YK: As someone biracial and bicultural, within herself, her own identities war against each other. Everybody has a different perspective, rooted in their background.

VR: Come to YK’s book for Indiana Jones and stay for thoughtful meditation on what it means to be human.

Moderator to MP: Romantasy has a trope of morally gray characters with a trope “I must keep secrets from you for your own protection.”

MP: She gets in their heads and explores their motivations. They all think they’re doing the right thing. One guy is lying because of past betrayal. Another one has a very deep fear for people’s lives. Moral conundrums are true to life. Life isn’t black and white.

VR: As an author, we don’t even want to have all the answers. Better to write questions you don’t know the answers to.

YK: Selfishness itself is not inherently bad. It can be your motivation, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

Now some responses that came from audience questions:

VR: Folklore is for people in the time it exists. It’s a living thing.

MP: Celtic folklore was never written down until the Christian monks. She tries to get at what it would have been behind that filter.

OS: Greek mythology + Nigerian mythology is her personal interpretation.

VR: How much can you forgive? You don’t get to decide what other people can forgive.

MP: Can a person be redeemed?

OS: What do we consider offenses in the first place? We might not need to forgive them if we understand their motivations.

VR: People who demand moral clarity have a lack of appreciation for a narrative arc. Do you want me telling your children what to do?

After that panel, I got the four books signed. Then I went to the main session where Kwame Alexander was speaking.

He had fun talking about winning not just a Newbery, but also an Emmy for Crossover.

Then he read an amazing and precocious letter from a 5th grade fan who demanded that he write a book with a female main character. So he talked about his next book, inspired by his great-grandmother, Black Star. It is book two of a trilogy.

Then he told us about Black librarians who fought against book bans 100 years before Moms for Liberty. Folks had forbidden too many Black books in one place. But in 1921, Virginia Lee found ways to get the books to the people, despite the orders.

Public librarians, if you want a model – look no further than the Black librarians of the early 20th Century.

We are in the imagination business, and we are reimagining what it means to be in community in a paradoxical time.

Libraries aren’t just the refuge in the storm – libraries are the rainbow.

His parents surrounded him with books that made him believe he mattered.

Then during the audience question time, Kwame called Jerry Craft on stage and announced that they’re collaborating on a book together! (Even though Jerry Craft has never won an Emmy.)

It was funny, because after Kwame finished speaking, I got in a line to greet librarian Mychal Threets, who posts about Library Joy and Library Kids.

After that session, I went back to my hotel room and fell asleep – but woke up in time to walk 2 miles along the bay to go to a Macmillan Happy Hour on a boat that’s part of the San Diego Maritime Museum. There were lots of authors there, and it was an opportunity to talk with some, but I mostly hung out on the deck, where it was breezy, and talked with my fellow Morris committee members who were there, finally meeting them in person after all our Zoom meetings.

And to top it off, they told us to take as many books as we wanted, so I walked back with these. Two of them are second books from debut authors who made an impression during my Morris reading.

All in all, it was a grand first full day of the conference. No wonder I was tired!

ALA Annual Conference – The Printz Awards

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The first big event of ALA Annual Conference is the Printz Awards and Reception on Friday night.

The ceremony was as exuberant and lovely as ever. I love that we get to hear from all the honorees, not the winner only.

My camera doesn’t do great in a big auditorium, but let me post some pictures and notes from the speeches:

First Honor Book Author was Moa Backe Astöt for Fire from the Sky

This award is beyond anything she imagined. She was 22 when the book was published, but was 15 when she started writing it. As a Sami teen, she didn’t see books about teens like her. She wanted to write a painful story with a happy ending. It’s crucial that indigenous people and minorities feel seen and represented in literature.

Next, her translator, Eva Apelqvist, spoke:

Sometimes we meet a book that we just want to share with the world. She first just translated a chapter to promote the book, and was so happy to get to translate more. The setting brings you to northern Sweden. She had to let go of cultural shackles and approach it with humility.

Next up was Kenneth M. Cadow, author of Gather:

A book with an award and a dog on the cover – and the dog lives!

He told a story of going to the solar eclipse – somehow we like to be reminded that we are small. People are unpredictable, sometimes pleasantly so. Our hope comes from knowing each other and tiptoeing around each other’s humanness. His book humannizes the data about white rural males and drugs.

Then came Shannon Gibney for The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be:

She reaches out to other people on Planet Adoptee. Other adoptees see and recognize the experiences here. And non-adoptees have told her: We didn’t know.

Next up was Candice Iloh for Salt the Water:

Cerulean is someone she never had the chance to be at 17. She’d believed she had to follow what adults said she should do. Young people lose hope in the institutes they’re supposed to trust. What happens when our young people have had enough? She illuminated one Black queer child’s choice to seek safety. No one is safe until we all are.

Finally, they presented the Printz Medal for the short story collection, The Collectors, edited by A. S. King. All the authors went up front to the side, and A. S. King gave the speech.

She wanted the speech to be weird. (And succeeded!) She started off with a story of how she ended up recommending Slaughterhouse Five to an old guy – and then warning him it’s a weird book.

She thinks the word “weird” actually means “humane.” Which means that being humane is weird.

Teenagers live in an entirely different world than we did. There’s emotional currency in weirdness. It’s weird to tell the truth. Weird is humane. It wants you to tell the truth.

They remove humane books.

Not one career here tonight was self-made.

Protect trans kids for no other reason than it’s the right thing to do.

We work with battle-weary kids whose adults can’t see the war. We serve children because we’ve all been children.

The opposite of humane is Shame.

We are artists. We are art.

Some claim to protect children by removing their emotional fire extinguishers.

Be weird!

ALA Annual Conference 2024 – Trevor Noah and Exhibits!

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I just finished attending the 2024 American Library Association Annual Conference!

I flew to San Diego on Friday, June 28, and here was the view from my hotel room:

And the view of the Convention Center:

My flight was delayed about 45 minutes, and even with just a quick stop in my hotel room, I wasn’t in time for the start of the Opening Session with Trevor Noah, but I did get to hear the end of it.

Trevor’s an advocate for libraries. I don’t remember all he said, being in a bit of a daze after my flight. But he did speak about the power of libraries and books that aren’t trying to manipulate you and get clicks.

Next was the opening of the exhibits.

I have a neck condition (a small right vertebral artery) which means I shouldn’t carry heavy bags of books. So usually, I go to ALA Member Services, show my doctor’s note, and get permission to bring a wheeled bag on the exhibit floor. But now I have a job where publishers send advance reader copies to me directly. Surely I don’t need to grab so many at the conference? I decided not to bring a wheeled bag and limit myself to not carry more than 3 books at a time. And, well – the first three days I succeeded in keeping it down to 4 at a time.

The first night, I picked up 4 books, 5 tote bags, some Booklist magazines, and a publisher catalog:

I must say that I demonstrated incredible restraint!

Then it was back to my hotel to get ready for the Printz Awards.

Conference Corner – Virginia Library Association Conference 2023

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ast Tuesday, I got to attend one day of the Virginia Library Association Conference. It was close by — basically in between my home and my workplace. I like to write up notes to consolidate what I learned, always bearing in mind that a big part of the value of librarian conferences is connecting with colleagues. In this case, I got to see many friends from my own library system and have lunch with people I used to see daily.

First up, the keynote speaker was author Jason Reynolds.

Now, if you’ve never heard Jason Reynolds speak, you need to find a way to do so. And I can’t communicate in notes his humor and presence — you had to be there.

But I will also note some good points he made (with lots of humor and poignancy):

He talked about relating to kids, as he does as an author but also as a person. He says you need three things: Humility, Intimacy, and Gratitude.

In his writing, he needs Humility because he’s no longer 13.

He’s got intimacy because the language of his neighborhood (rap) has become the language of youth culture. He puts boys in stories where they can be vulnerable.

Gratitude — He shows kids as human beings. His books are his love letters to kids.

Books are the tickets he created to get access to human beings, his golden tickets to every school in the country.

When we deal with humans, we need:

Humility — Deal with our egos. Adults are an entitled population. We need humility to create a relationship with kids.

Intimacy — Thank them for coming. Without the kids, we have no purpose.

Books are important, but we ban humans every day, by not acknowledging them.

Look up and see the people around us. We’re all made to be opened.

***

After lunch, the next session I went to was the Cardinal Cup Author Spotlight.

The Virginia Library Association gives an annual award to honor a distinguished biography, historical fiction or American history book for young people. It has this year been renamed the Cardinal Cup instead of the Jefferson Cup.

The winning book this year was Louisa June and the Nazis in the Waves, by L. M. Elliott. The author talked about her research about the Nazi U-boats that used to patrol the East Coast of the United States and in March 1942, before sonar, were sinking an American ship every 8 hours. Five U-boats sank 397 ships. I’d had no idea! Her talk about her research and the tidbits she found was fascinating.

Her writing process is research, then imagination, dictated by fact. I was enchanted by all she had to say and got two signed books (this one and her next one), which I plan to read just as soon as we’ve chosen this year’s Morris Award winners.

***

The next session was called Legislative Panel on the Right to Read in School and Local Public Libraries

It was moderated by VLA’s liaison to the legislature and featured a Virginia state senator and state legislator who have been fighting increased legislation attacking the right to read and trying to limit what’s available in Virginia libraries.

As the legislator said, parents who *want* their children to have access to books have rights, too.

The Virginia senator speaking is also a professor of literature, so this is close to her heart. After all, we know the dangers of book banning.

This past legislative session, they talked about bills that were defeated, and a bill that got through. On its surface, it is saying parents have to consent to study books in class. In practice, it made it easier to ban books.

They warned us that advocacy is important. Right now, those who want to ban books have the loudest voices, and we need to change that. Advocacy matters.

This is driving government control on speech and thinking.

Remember: We never want politicians to determine what is literature!

***

The final session I attended was four “lightning talks” with basically nuts-and-bolts library issues, including two friends from my library system who made an app that helps manage our collection.

Altogether, it was a great day to get out and mingle with other librarians and be inspired and refreshed to continue doing the work.

Conference Corner: Walter Dean Myers Awards

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Today I livestreamed the Walter Dean Myers Awards and Symposium from We Need Diverse Books.

First, I highly recommend watching it yourself. Super inspirational.

I was a little sorry I hadn’t taken the trouble to go into DC and attend in person. But when I found out they were livestreaming it, it was way too tempting to watch from home.

I do take notes to help me pay attention. And then transcribing the notes helps me absorb what I heard. But instead of transcribing everything I wrote down, let me just give some highlights.

First, check out the winners on the We Need Diverse Books site. The program was emceed by Jacqueline Woodson, and first up was a round table discussion with three Honor Book authors, moderated by Ellen Oh, one of the founders of We Need Diverse Books. Some gems from that talk:

Ibi Zoboi became a writer after she read a book by Edwidge Danticat where her mother’s hometown in rural Haiti is mentioned right at the start. She felt validated and that she could be a writer, too.

Sonora Reyes was in a mental hospital when they read a book that was a rom-com centering a trans boy. It was full of joy and funny and happy and it saved their life.

When asked about book bans, Sabaa Tahir responded that you can look at the history of marginalized people. They don’t give up! We’re all going to keep writing! More books! Louder books! We absolutely refuse to be silenced. We’ll keep yelling until you’re ready to join that shout.

Ibi Zoboi thinks about dystopias. Even if somehow all books were destroyed, there would still be stories. Kids are telling stories already. That is impossible to stop.

Even though Sabaa Tahir switched from fantasy novels to realistic, they all focus on Hope through difficult times. The question she’s asking in all her books is, “Why do we treat each other this way?”

Ellen Oh asked them all if they had advice for young writers.

Sonora Reyes: Keep in mind that a lot of advice out there won’t work for you, and that’s okay. Test out writing advice and keep only what works.

Ibi Zoboi: Octavia Butler wrote about empaths. Many artists and writers are feeling people. Lean into that. Question your feelings. “We need more heart people in the world.”

Sabaa Tahir went with the practical: You need to get words on the page, so bribe yourself. She uses chocolate. Even if it’s garbage, put words on the page.

Next, recent Newbery winner Amina Luqman-Dawson spoke. She was a recipient of a writer’s mentorship from We Need Diverse Books. In 2018, the last time Jacqueline Woodson emceed the awards, she was sitting in the auditorium, clutching her manuscript that later won the Newbery Medal.

She talked about fighting book banners who claim that young people need to be protected from feeling bad. If that were true, we’d be talking about gun control.

The war on books isn’t about how young people feel. It’s a war to control your minds. It’s about the power of your ideas. The ideas in your minds can and likely will change the world. They worry if you learn, you might stand up for change.

Remember you have power to change the world!

Then it was time to give the trophies, and the winners gave speeches. First up was Angela Joy, who write the words for Choosing Brave.

She was at a writer’s conference feeling like a chocolate chip in a sea of marshmallows and heard about We Need Diverse Books as a call to action.

Lots of people were skeptical of a picture book about Emmett Till’s mother. Lots of Americans don’t want to hear his story at all. But that story is still being played out, and our youth see this. We need to help them process the trauma. Books are tools for conversations.

She wanted their book to be age-appropriate but honest, factual but inspiring. Once they landed on the theme of bravery, they had the handle for that balance.

Mamie’s life inspires her, and she’s trying to spread that with Choosing Brave.

Future leaders of tomorrow’s hate groups are being indoctrinated as babes in arms. We should be just as intentional about teaching our kids.

Then she sang a wonderful and beautiful song, “You’ve got to be carefully taught to hate.”

Let us also teach with intention.

Then illustrator Janelle Washington spoke. She talked about all the books she loved as a kid. Books are her forever friends and wise teachers.

Our connections with each other give us the strength to be brave in the face of everyday diversity.

Then it was time for the Teen category winners. Andrea Rogers, author of winner Man Made Monsters spoke and introduced herself in Cherokee.

She got serious about writing when her kids were faced with the same lack of stories about Indians as she had seen. Many times, other kids told her kids that they couldn’t be Indian, because all the Indians are dead.

For her, reading is a way of escape, but writing is a way to say, “We are here!” “I write, therefore I am.”

Her tribe’s story doesn’t end with the Trail of Tears.

How do you thank people for finally seeing you?

Everything in life is made up. Help children make up a better future.

Boundaries Be Gone! Using Stories to Intersect and Connect – ALA Annual Conference Day Four

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On Monday, June 27, 2022, the fourth day of ALA Annual Conference, I stumbled a little late into a program called “Boundaries Be Gone! Using Stories to Intersect and Connect.” I missed the first speaker, Dr. Cora Dunkley, but have some great notes from those who followed:

The first speaker I got to listen to was Michaela Goade, the Caldecott-winning illustrator of We Are Water Protectors.

She is indigenous and grew up in Juneau and Sitka.

She wants kids to feel seen and powerful. Indigenous roots are a superpower.

She grew up with shame. Storytelling is so important, and the books she had weren’t written by indigenous people. But the native kid lit community is growing! There are more tribe-specific books. We’re all working together toward greater awareness.

These different communities have their own unique histories and traditions. They’re trying to communicate the breadth. There’s no one way to be indigenous.

She’s part of an organization making Native books for Native peoples. Working with authors from different indigenous communities. They use the author as the anchor. They focus on emotion and universal calls to action.

Unfortunately, We Are Water Protectors will always be relevant.

We need non-indigenous folks to see and love on these books.

The next speaker was author David Bowles.

There’s a liminal space in borders. He grew up in a transnational place. Borders can be porous but important. You see yourself as someone defined by the boundary. Inside of you is this liminal space, a convergence of heritages.

Growing up bilingual emphasizes linguistic duality.

He’s from a family of storytellers. His grandmother was a cuentista who refueled the stories.

His mother took him to the library every day in Kindergarten and he saw that the language in books was different. He knew he wanted to do something with story. He’s both a cuentista and a writer.

Even growing up on the border, the books had nothing about Mexican heritage. He felt a calling and needed to be a teacher first, paying a debt to the community.

The system kept people in their place. He needed to breach the boundary between teacher and student. He didn’t want to be above them talking down to them.

How do our boundaries intersect? Boundaries are important, but not impermeable.

He began a journey digging into his roots, de-centering the European part.

Cross over boundaries in yourself and reach out in solidarity to others.

A central thread in his work is rooted in the experience of living on the border. He wants these books to broadcast to others that these stories matter and are beautiful. There’s so much overlap in humanity.

Banning books tries to make permeable boundaries into concrete walls. If you control what kids are exposed to, it’s easier to try to make everyone the same.

After the speakers were questions and answers. My favorite comment from that was when Michaela Goade said that being the first (Indigenous Caldecott Winner) feels great but not great. The tricky part is that then you’re expected to be an ambassador.

I went to a couple more sessions, including the Stonewall Awards celebration, wrapping up a wonderful time at ALA Annual Conference, in person again.

In Conversation: Yuyi Morales and Donna Barba Higuera – ALA Annual Conference Day Four

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Monday morning, June 27, 2022, I drove into DC for the fourth day of ALA Annual Conference. I began the day in the exhibits and got books signed by, among others, Travis Jonker and Varian Johnson. Here’s how my piles looked after the fourth day!

Then I went to a panel discussion with Yuyi Morales, whose book Dreamers (my personal favorite picture book from my Newbery year) was an important part of the story in this year’s Newbery-winning title, The Last Cuentista, by Donna Barba Higuera.

Shelly Diaz, the reviews editor of School Library Journal, was the moderator, so the first question she asked Donna was “When did you read Dreamers and what did you think?

DBH: In an earlier version, the book the little brother treasured was Frederick, but then she read Dreamers, and it changed everything. It’s about collecting vision and hope.

YM: She was very moved when she read The Last Cuentista. It made her cry. A connection she never would have dreamed of. The story felt as real as when other children see themselves in Dreamers. Seeing the book carried by Petra and Javier — told her she’s done her work.

SLJ: Who was a librarian who affected you?

DBH: Mrs. Hughes at a small rural library. She’d have books set aside for her to read. She knew what she liked and the worlds she was living in.

YM: Nancy, a children’s librarian, welcomed her. She didn’t understand either the language or the dynamics of the library, but Nancy and the other librarians created a space where she felt safe.

SLJ: What can we do?

DBH: Keep putting books in the hands of children. It’s a lot of pressure and easy for the public to say. Kids will find a way to get these books. Librarians are really doing a lot already.

YM: In Mexico, books aren’t used so much for education. We’re going to have to fight like warriors. Books still need to be created. We need to have and protect those books and get them in the hands of children. They should be everywhere.

DBH: It can’t just be librarians. Ask. There will be parents and teachers who support freedom to read.

SLJ: Has anyone seen something in your story that surprised you?

YM: All the time. The San Francisco main library filled her with wonder. She did a reading there and it felt like coming back home. A homeless woman said, “This is me and my child.” It’s written to give everyone the value of their stories.

DBH: She’s surprised by kids who know the folklore and mythology. As a kid, she’d thought they were something her grandma made up. She didn’t expect recognition from children — a satisfying surprise.

SLJ: Both books have focus on folklore and mythology.

DBH: She did lots of research. Oral tradition is one version. El Canejo in the moon is a story lots of kids haven’t heard — but she heard it as a child.

YM: Her favorite thing was that Petra made the stories her own — just like children in classrooms. Kids take from stories what they need, not what she intended.

She also does research. In Dreamers, she put in butterflies and other animals that migrate. Snakes make us fearful – but we’re about to learn something important. It has vital energy.

SLJ: What are you working on now?

DBH: Picture book about her own journey, and El Cuycuy story. Another sci-fi novel with lots of moving parts.

YM: The more books she makes, the longer they take. She has a very different process now, related to her own growth.

“Our biggest rebellion is to be happy.”

And happiness is connected to the well-being of everyone.

The Newbery/Caldecott/Legacy Banquet 2022

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The highlight of ALA Annual Conference is always the banquet where they award the Newbery Medal, the Caldecott Medal, and the Children’s Literature Legacy Award. The last time I attended, I was at a publishers’ table with other Newbery committee members and winners, so there’s just such a warm place in my heart for this event. This time I got to sit with my former boss, Laura — who one week earlier was my current boss!

I put my camera in the wrong pouch of my bag before I changed clothes and thought I’d lost it — so I didn’t take as many pictures as usual and only used my phone. But I did take notes on the winners’ speeches. And I’ll sum them up here.

Jason Chin, winner of the Caldecott Medal for his illustration of Watercress, by Andrea Wang

As a kid, he drew dragons and castles and would leave the real world behind.

In second grade, he moved to a small town in New Hampshire. And at school there, he met Trina Schart Hyman — she’d recently won the Caldecott Medal for St. George and the Dragon. It was an endorsement of the value of art, and drawing dragons.

In high school, he showed his artwork to Trina Schart Hyman, and she invited him to her house. He ended up visiting her many times and was his mentor and role model. She lived in her stories. Her deep empathy gave her art emotional honesty.

To make great art, pour yourself into it.

In making Watercress, meeting Andrea was the first step in the process.

He had to answer questions: What does corn look like? A 1957 Pontiac? He remembered times of being ashamed. He first tried making the illustrations in pastel, but he returned to watercolor, which has echoes of Chinese art. It was a symbolic merging of two cultures.

The words bring the art to life. “Be happy with what you have. Be proud of who you are.” It’s also a story of a mother dealing with grief. When she shares her story, she begins to heal.

It’s an American story.

To believe there’s one correct American story is behind book banning.

Book banning says kids should be ashamed of who they are.

Without empathy, resentment grows.

We need books that reflect the whole American story.

Donna Barba Higuera, Newbery Medal Winner for The Last Cuentista

She thought it could never happen to a kid like her.

“If you’re worried about putting your foot in your mouth, wear really big shoes.”

She grew up as a bold-faced liar, and couldn’t stop. Her first lie at 8 years old was that aliens landed in her yard. The adults didn’t stop her. They asked, Then what happened?

Her grandmother told stories, as did her aunt and her mother, and Esther Grigsby, the woman in her 80s who lived next door, and her father, who told her Al Capone was his great-uncle.

She loved books, beginning with Richard Scarry and Frederick and continuing to stories of Meg Murray and other science fiction, all told by cuentistas.

If all the cuentistas are going to hell for lying, we can sit around a fire pit and tell stories.

Her book is about love of family, dangers of conformity, and the power of story.

The elephant in the room is that erasure of stories is what she fears most.

Stories and memories are what she’d take from earth if she had to leave.

Erasure and banning stories is a pattern that repeats, and it’s based in fear.

We have to say out loud the parts that hurt the most.

It does take courage to put stories in the hands of children.

Grace Lin, Children’s Literature Legacy Award Winner

Let’s suck up each other’s book love!

She had a bad case of imposter syndrome winning this award. Imposter syndrome is like bugs that swarm late at night and are impossible to get rid of.

It’s hard when your life’s work is disparaged. “When are you going to write a real book?”

These bugs leave eggs.

The danger of diminishment is we start to believe it. If our work is not important, we are not important.

We are working to create a better humanity. We are showing what our culture wants to pass down. What we create is important.

Asian Americans have paid a deep price for otherness. Her books show how human we all are. None of us need to prove we are good enough to exist.

“No matter what, we’re going to keep working hard to do good things.”

We’re replacing outdated books with books that reflect our world today.

You are the essential workers of the spirit.

The worse bugs are those ideas. Put the ideas in the light for all the world to see.

We have changed the landscape of this world.

If others see us only as bugs, let’s show them we are fireflies! Humanity can also be beautiful.

[During the speech, Grace gave us drawing breaks, giving us step-by-step instructions. At the end of the talk, it turned out that we had all drawn fireflies!]

It was all a wonderful evening!

ALSC Collection Management Discussion Group and Library Family Feud! – ALA Annual Conference Day Three

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Continuing my highlights from ALA Annual Conference 2022, on Sunday June 26, after the YA Author Coffee Klatch, I attended a Collection Management Discussion Group sponsored by the Association for Library Services to Children. I was especially excited about this session, because exactly five days before, I’d started my new job as Youth Materials Selector for my library system.

Though this was a lot of detailed and specific discussions, and I still didn’t really know what I didn’t know. But it was good to meet the group and I got my name on an email list.

Among other things, we discussed book challenges. Some libraries had dealt with “1st Amendment Auditors.” Their PR department made a good list of talking points. You have to be careful in email — “You end up with pen pals.” Talk about other options and know what you have on the shelves.

We discussed that children’s nonfiction collections didn’t go out as much during the pandemic. Some libraries were building “curriculum kits” for home schoolers, working with local schools. Some of the nonfiction collection is switching to ebooks.

I did learn that for those who had tried it, a “Lucky Day” collection didn’t work as well with children’s books. Mainly, children’s book usage doesn’t fall off as much as adults do — children don’t care as much if it’s new, because it’s new to them. One person said their library did 5 or 6 “Lucky Day” books for children per month. (These are always available.) After 6 months, if each copy hasn’t gone out in the last two months, that title is weeded from the Lucky Day collection.

There’s been some plateauing of ebooks, but we’ll see what the summer holds. The pandemic has changed a lot of patterns. Everybody’s buying fewer CDs — mostly just children’s and not young adult.

After that meeting was Library Family Feud!

I got to be on a team of Librarians to compete against a team of Authors to win real money for book-related charities! Here’s the Author team:

It was a whole lot of fun. I knew two of my teammates from Capitol Choices (a DC-area group of librarians that makes a list of 100 notable children’s and YA books each year). Hundreds of librarians were surveyed to get the answers, so we may have had an advantage, though in the past the authors usually won.

I’m most proud of my answer when the topic was “Famous Poets” and I thought of “Amanda Gorman” to steal it from the Authors.

And — we won! Here’s the winning team of Librarians!

We got books signed by the authors when we finished.

After that, I went back to the exhibits, where I got more books signed and attended a Book Buzz Fall Preview for Levine Querido Books, Chronical Books, and Candlewick Press. They made me want to get all the books!

Then it was time to change for the Newbery/Caldecott/Legacy Banquet!

YA Author Coffee Klatch – ALA Annual Conference Day Three

Conference Corner 0

My third day of ALA Annual Conference, on June 26, 2022, began at 9 AM with the YA Author Coffee Klatch.

Most years, the authors who participate in this event were all award winners, but this time there were some debut authors in the mix. We got about five minutes with each author before they moved to the next table, so not much time to interact, but it was fun to hear personally about their books.

At first I was shy, but after the first few, I took pictures, so I’d remember them and their books.

Here are the authors I met:

Lisa Fipps, author of Starfish. Book Two is coming!

Vincent Tirado, author of Burn Down, Rise Up. The characters go back in time to the Bronx in the 70s.

Angeline Boulley, author of Firekeeper’s Daughter. Book Two is also coming for her! It will be same setting, different characters.

Kyle Lukoff, author of Different Kinds of Fruit.

Gail Jarrow, author of American Murderer. She gave us gummy worms as swag for a book about a worm parasite!

Anath Hirsh, author of Pixels of You, soft sci-fi graphic novel about artificial intelligence and presenting as human.

Laekan Zea Kemp, author of Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet, Heartbreak Symphony (2022), and An Appetite for Miracles (2023). The first one was about food, the new one is about music overcoming grief, and the next is about food and music and dementia.

Tim Grove, author of nonfiction The First Flight Around the World, and a new book, The World Turned Upside Down, about Yorktown, including a story about Lafayette’s spy.

Diana Peterfreund, author of the Clue trilogy. It’s great for doing library programming around. Send her pictures if you do a themed game night!

Judy Lin, author of A Magic Steeped in Poison and Venom Dark and Sweet (coming August 2022). It’s Taiwanese-Chinese-inspired fantasy about a magical tea competition.

Cory Anderson, author of Morris Finalist What Beauty There Is, crime fiction set in rural Idaho.

Francesca Padila, author of What’s Coming to Me, a debut novel, a mystery about a girl on her own in rural Long Island who discovers her boss is laundering money. (Oops! Missed her picture!)

Darcie Little Badger, author of two of my recent favorites, Elatsoe and A Snake Falls to Earth. They’re inspired by storytelling structures and themes for the Lipan Apache. She has a PhD in Oceanography and wanted to combat a sense of helplessness and environmental anxiety.

Susan Azim Boyer, author of Jasmine Amideh Nees a Win, a funny book about the Iran hostage crisis and an Iranian American student feeling shame around her identity.

Vanessa L. Torres, author of The Turning Pointe (pub 2/22/22), about a Latinx ballet dancer in the 80s in Minneapolis. She encounters police brutality and leaves her emotions on the dance floor.

Marsha Argueta Mickelson, author of Pura Belpré Honor book Where I Belong, a contemporary YA novel where politics brings out the story. Her next book is called The Weight of Everything.

Ebony LaBelle, author of Love Radio, a YA romance set in Detroit. A love letter to Detroit and to families. Black joy.