Play Make Learn Conference

 This is a fairly new conference - it started in 2017 and I heard about it because they were actually so desperate for presenters they invited me lol. I've never actually attended until this year though. It's run primarily through UW-Madison's school of education, but it's a blend of education, gaming/design/tech, and maker space. I'm actually glad I waited until now to attend, because I think this year had a really nice mix of different perspectives. When you've been in a profession for a while, everything tends to cycle around and you hear the same stuff over and over again - at least, that's my experience in libraries/education - so this was nice because it brought different perspectives together.

Personality leakage, as Ms. Yingling would say, is that I got there (and back and there and back) without getting lost! I was quite impressed with myself (also sick of driving, as it was an accumulation of 8+ hours). Due to my poor eyesight and the way road signs are constructed, I usually am driving past the exit I need by the time I can read the sign. Then I get lost. But this time, although I missed many exits of various types (seriously Wisconsin what is with the crazy roundabouts??) I always figured out a way forward. I only had two brief detour/turn arounds on the first leg of the journey. Could my directional abilities be improving? Only time will tell...

These are my own opinions, not sanctioned by my employer, so you can't blame them if I'm not diplomatic (see, reason no. 3,572 why I am not a director).

Keynote - virtual address from Jesse Schell

• The transformative power of gaming. I knitted. Not that I disagreed, it just wasn't really anything relevant to me.

Concurrent sessions - This was people presenting their research together, in a moderated format (the best) or loosely connected by subject (not the best).

This one was moderated and very good.

• Starting young: How to launch family making experiences at the library
• This was from a library. Unfortunately, the room acoustics weren't good and I couldn't really hear most of it. I did like the remarks re. 3-D printers and things one can do with them (mostly take them out back and beat them with baseball bats).
• Real tools, real research: exploration and engagement in low-tech makerspaces
• This is a specific makerspace in a museum, Real Tools, and I got some cool ideas. I'm not sure what I'd be able to adapt to my space, but one thing I really liked as a take away was the idea of "closing the door" at the "stress point" for staff. I'm not sure how I'd adapt this to a library setting, but for our own sanity we need it! The one thing I did come up with was having a separate, drop-in activity during some Pokemon Club sessions to take off the pressure and focusing on redirecting and encouraging kids doing maker activities to take breaks when they're getting frustrated.
• So you have a makerspace, now what?
• This was a museum/aquarium that opened a makerspace. Some interesting ideas about flow, mostly specific to a dedicated space.

This one wasn't really moderated and the presentations weren't very related, but the individual presenters were good.

• Playfully sustainable!
• This was the Madison Children's Museum. Some great resources on doing more sustainable activities. One thing I'd really like to improve is the packaging for our take home activities. I enjoyed hearing about their WonderGround play space too.
• Curiosity Klatches: A working group model for museum educators
• This was a student presenting research on connecting museums. I did notice there's rather a dearth of museums in WI in our area - probably because Chicago and its museums are so close. It also inspired me to think about rebuilding the youth services connections in our library consortium, which really disintegrated during the first two years of the pandemic.
• GeoMuseUM: Experiencing art in situ and virtually
• "This presentation will share use cases, considerations, and process for creating a community geolocative art guide." This was from a university in Florida. The only thing I thought of was that maybe adult services would want to create some interactive maps of local history areas? The presenter mentioned a free geography tool (which I promptly forgot the name of) but I could probably find it again if it's of interest.

What’s YOUR story? Story-based tinkering to advance engineering learning

• This was presented by the Tinkering Lab from the Chicago Children's Museum. Some really great resources and ideas on connecting engineering and stories and how using stories enriches the "tinkering" process. I'll definitely be incorporating this into programming ideas.
• Explore, experiment, process, fail. The testing process. Story and tinkering together - story start cards, combine with making?
  

Creative collaborations with cardboard: Developing community informed maker events

• This was from a museum in Minnesota and focused not just on their cardboard building events, but on how they connected with cultural community groups, specifically BIPOC populations and the results of those collaborations. Some great ideas for working with special communities and it makes me wonder if there's a way I could target our population of families with kids with special needs and our Head Start families in new ways. One of the most successful events I did with Head Start was a cardboard building afternoon and I'd love to repeat and expand that.

Day 2

Keynote: Cassidy Puckett

• The knitting continues. This was more relevant and I was listening more closely. It was aimed more at educators, but focused on her research especially around marginalized communities in tech and the general idea that they lack not the skills and abilities, but the recognition of the skills and abilities they have. I also thought of a correlation between her remarks of how educators sometimes use tech as a "reward" for the "good" kids and the way we incentivize (or penalize) reading. Some of the skills she mentioned are good ones to incorporate into making - the ability to fail, logic and tinkering or playing around with things, a willingness to experiment, and recognizing the learning process.

Maker Space Table: Learning to Sew with Young Learners

• I stopped here for a few minutes, talked to a 1st grade teacher about the resources he uses and looked at some of the different supplies he was displaying.

Libraries and Museums making it work: lessons learned through COVID-19 and insights for the future

• This was a very mixed bag of ideas and suggestions. I thought some of the presenters did not actually have concrete ideas or suggestions and were expecting the audience to actually do the work of the presentation. A toolkit was presented, and I liked some of the ideas from that and another presenter (5 Reasons Why program rubric) on assessing programs and patron responses, but frankly all of this information is already out there in various formats. I did not think the toolkit did a good job of meeting the needs of small and rural libraries and the examples of elevator speeches would be detrimental to a library trying to connect in a small community. However, this was a very small part of the entire project that we saw and the actual implementation may have been more useful.

Concurrent session

• Meeting the needs of all: Improving the accessibility and equity of makerspaces
• Quite frankly, this was the worst presentation of the whole conference. I was very disappointed. The presenter used outdated and derogatory language, a very limited definition of certain disabilities, and did not seem to understand how basic research/surveying processes work, blaming the respondents for data that did not fit with the researcher's preconceived ideas. They directly contradicted their own research in the presentation and offered no practical or concrete ideas. It's frustrating to think that grant money goes to things like this when so many other organizations could make better use of it.
• Heads, Hearts, and Hands: SEL in Maker Ed
• This was much better - from a teacher, a presentation on connecting SEL to maker activities. SEL is a big topic for a lot of schools right now (those that aren't banning everything in sight that is) and she laid out very concise ways to communicate to teachers and parents how maker education connects. Very useful, even if you're not an educator.
• Learning Circles for Makerspace Learning
• I was vaguely familiar with this idea previously - basically it has adults working together for free virtual education, like LinkedIn Learning - but I didn't know there was a whole website of free facilitator guides. I've passed it on to our adult services librarian, but I think it will also be of interest to our middle school, which does something along these lines and might find it very useful.

Playlab: Setting the stage for child led learning, exploration, and experimentation

• This last session was put together by the Betty Brinn museum, a local-ish museum in Milwaukee, and was really good - lots of ideas sparked for me in how we present and organize our play area and activity tables. I'm saving all my notes and making this a project for 2023/2024, as I want to blend it with, hopefully, a new youth desk setup that we might potentially be fundraising for. Also, they had cute boxes. You can get them from Uline and they're not expensive (asides from shipping, but our DPW has offered to pick stuff up for us before....)

More pictures of tools and posters

Early Childhood Conference

I haven't been to this conference before - apparently it's quite a big deal in the early childhood educator world. It's pretty inexpensive, compared to most library conferences, and is at a local university. I wasn't sure how much it would apply to library work, especially since I already have my school colleague who does most of our early childhood storytimes, but I thought it would be a good opportunity to see ways the library can support our local early childhood centers, from daycares to four year old kindergartens. Conclusion - I'm glad I went, but once was probably enough, since I got the feeling a lot of it repeats. I was the only librarian at the pre-conference on Friday, but I did meet two other librarians from the Gail Borden library on Saturday (those in the library world may be familiar with this Illinois library as the one of the first to go to bisac/subjects and it's a pretty innovative - and massive - library.). Anyways.

Friday preconference
 - Inevitably, I drove back and forth several times on the highway before deciding on an exit. Amazingly, I then quickly found the university, even with detours!
 - Robin Fox, a professor with a lengthy background experience in early childhood education, was the morning speaker. She talked about the changes in education, inclusiveness, policies, having difficult conversations, etc. After lunch, there were casual break-out sessions. I don't think these went too well since a lot of people seemed very much at a loss what to do without a facilitator, but I had some good conversations with a couple people, especially a teacher in a county next to ours and we exchanged several different library-related resources that I'll be following up on.
 - Robin Fox finished with a final conclusion and a number of resources
 - I then drove in CIRCLES for an HOUR trying to find my way out of the town. No, it is not a big town. I couldn't find the highway again! I finally found it, after an HOUR but I have no idea how.

Saturday
 - Found the exit with no driving back and forth this time!
 - The keynote was... not for me. The speaker was someone who was apparently well-known in early childhood circles and she gave a very "inspirational" speech but I'm really not much on inspiration, I prefer practicalities. Other people seemed to get a lot out of it, but I personally thought there was no substance, just a lot of talk. And she incorrectly attributed several quotes from children's literature, including a Winnie -the-Pooh one, my particular bete noire. But, again, I wasn't really the audience for this.
 - Children and Play by Sandy Queen. Apparently this presenter has been presenting at the conference for a long time. I think it was the first time I've seen her though - very lively and personable, lots of stories, and some good information on the importance of play with ways to frame it. I think she was used to having longer sessions, as she kind of ran out of time at the end and I was sorry she had to end it - I could have listened to her longer. I'll be using things from this session in my work on our play areas and grant-writing, as well as how I frame/plan programs.
 - Secrets from your SLP by Tammy Myers. I was supposed to go to a different session, but I decided to be the rebel librarian and changed my mind and went to this one instead! I wasn't sure if you could do that or not, but apparently the only sessions that were completely filled were the, uh, essential oils and something else. So... yeah. Anyways, SLP does NOT mean what it means in the library world, it means speech language pathologist! The presenter did kind of put me to sleep - very soothing and somewhat monotonous voice - but she had really interesting things to say, especially in how we talk with/read to children and I'll be interested to incorporate some of her ideas, especially doing more matching and less identifying "this is red what else is red?" rather than "what color is this?"
 - During the lunch hour I checked out the vendor hall - they had a couple booths with puppets, toys, and the rest were things like the Registry and sponsors. Library exhibits are more fun lol.
 - Learning continues at home with Bev Schumaker - I was familiar with this person, she and her husband do learning games that many libraries circulate (I've got them in a list somewhere to add... sometime). This was super practical and useful, full of simple ideas for things parents and caregivers can take home to keep learning going. Lots of great recyclable ideas, things we can use for our activity table and/or in storytime.
 - Project Wild Child with Becky Bender and Sarah Nogee. Oh, how I wish our local kindergartens used this approach! These two amazing teachers take their early childhood and kindergarten classes out to the woods every Monday, rain, sun, or shine. So many wonderful experiences and ideas! I'm not sure how or if I can apply this to the library, but I'd certainly love for our outdoor garden space to be an exploratory space like theirs! Unfortunately, because it's right on a main road there are not only safety concerns but also issues with it looking "messy" since people drive by it. However, I really, really enjoyed this session.
 - Science it's electric by Karen Evans - this is a preschool teacher from Chicago who teachers her kids to make circuits and use electricity. It was hands on and I'm excited to see what I can incorporate into our programs - I think a maker kit for electricity and seeing if the kids can wire the dollhouses we make this summer for electricity would be a cool start...
 - Amazingly, I did NOT get lost leaving this time! I have no idea how, but somehow I magically ended up at the highway exit. So all's well that ends well.

In some ways this was very different from a library conference. It was much more structured - people signed up for sessions ahead of time and I am pretty sure you weren't supposed to change (rebel librarian here though...). The educators have a lot of different concerns - much more attention is paid to policy, regulations, etc. I also noticed that there wasn't as much of the same "sharing" culture as I usually see in library groups - people stuck to their own groups and although I chatted with a few people it wasn't anything like a library conference. Especially before and after sessions, most library conferences people naturally (in my experience) chat to their neighbors and introduce themselves, but that's apparently not a thing for this. I also didn't see many people exchanging ideas as I'm used to.

So, as I said at the beginning, some great presenters and I got good ideas, but I don't think I'll need a repeat visit. I'm certainly glad I went (although that's not how I felt at 6am in the morning after a long week...)

Kidlitcon 2019

Yes, I really only took pictures of the things that interested
me at the RISD art museum. Namely, textiles (and a few
ceramics and some Impressionists)

I can't honestly say I've been always wanting to go to Kidlitcon because I hate to travel, stay in hotels, go out to eat in strange places, and basically all the stuff that people love about conferences. But I did really want to do Kidlitcon at least once, and meet all the people I've only talked to online. Last fall I made the plunge and signed up, so when it got to March and everything was completely insane I couldn't back out! For a more comprehensive post, with pictures, see Ami's blog. And yes, most of the reason I went was to hang out with Ami. I wish she lived closer and/or we worked together! I also got to hang out with publicist Barbara Fisch, who I've only spoken to via email!

Anyways, I left early Thursday morning for a complicated travel scheme of driving, bus, and plane, then arrived Thursday afternoon and was kindly picked up by Charlotte and met up with various old Cybils friends. I also sat down and went through the guide to Providence and the conference (yes, normally I would have done this way in advance, but remember how I said everything went wombat-up? Yeah. I shoved some stuff in a bag the night before and asked my neighbor to watch my plants and that was as much preparation as I did.)

Friday sessions:
Keynote with LeUyen Pham
Yes, I enjoyed this keynote - Pham is amazing, funny, reflective, and just interesting. She talked about her own experiences as a child and a reader, how her Vietnamese heritage affected her, and her interactions with librarians and teachers. She also talked about her viewpoints changed and how that was reflected in her art.

STEM Stories
Anita Sanchez (Itch, Rotten, Leaflets three, let it be)
Richard Ho (Red Rover book on Mars coming out next fall)
Jason Viola (Science Comics: Polar Bears)
Sara Levine (Bone by Bone, Tooth by Tooth, Fossil by fossil, Flower talk)
Heidi Fiedler (Know-nonsense guides, editor)
Paula Willey (moderator)
Lots of insight into the process of nonfiction picture books, ideas for programming etc.

Instagram
Charnaie Gordon
Lauren Neil
This was really good, very practical. I wrote up a lot of detailed notes I'm giving to my staff who do instagram, primarily for our teens, to hopefully bump our teen circulation.

Not just the Newbery
Shoshana Flax
Anamaria Anderson
Charlotte Taylor
As the presenters noted, there isn't a comprehensive list of children's literature awards - it's just too wide a field. However, if you're interested in awards affiliated with ALA try this list (participation varies from volunteering to running for election, but almost all require membership in ALA and physical attendance at several conferences. Ergo, expensive.) State awards are here, and I have an abbreviated list of the awards I use most often here.

Marketing picture books
Traci Sorell (We are grateful)
Michelle Cusolito (Flying deep)
Sarah Lynne Reul (Breaking news, and some lift-the-flap books that I might look at)
Jeanette Bradley (Love Mama - hadn't seen this before, very cute penguin book)
Christy Mihaly (Hey Hey Hay - I snapped that up the minute I saw it last year!)
This was really directed more at authors, talking about how to market your books and navigate your first year as a debut author, but I thought it might have some great ideas for marketing picture books and I did get some excellent suggestions for displays and promoting picture books. I also appreciated that Michelle Cusolito pointed out that you can't just walk into a library or bookstore and expect them to start promoting your work - you have to build relationships before hand. To be brutally honest, when somebody walks in and says "I've written a children's book" my first instinct is to run and hide, and assume it's probably crap. On the other hand, I have two patrons that I've known for many years, who are regular library patrons, read extensively in the children's area, and are interested in writing children's books. I'm happy to chat with them and will certainly promote their books if they get to that stage because I know they can take criticism and are working at their craft. Plus, I really, really want that cute picture book with photos...

LGBTQ positive picture books
Megan Dowd Lambert (Real sisters pretend)
Andrea Loney (Bunnybear)
Christian Trimmer (Teddy's favorite toy, Snow pony, also an editor)
Alli Harper
Jeanette Bradley (moderator)
The basic idea of this was that now that GLBTQ families are more mainstream, there need to be more mainstream picture books. There were a number of good examples of titles and discussion of what needs to be seen going forward. One thing that interested me was that this panel really typified the divide I've seen between urban/rural areas and different parts of the country. The mainstream acceptance that many of the people on this panel have seen/experienced is certainly not my experience in my small, midwestern town. Although it is more accepting in some ways (I've never had a challenge for a book with LGBTQ content and we have a small Pride fair in the summer) it's certainly not mainstream and absolutely not reflected in the attitudes of the average patron or staff. But I didn't want to harsh their buzz so I didn't bring this up. Also, Andrea Loney has absolutely awesome style (I got to talk to her later, not about literature but about hair...) and she looked fabulous every time I saw her at the conference.

Saturday sessions
Keynote with Varian Johnson
This focused mainly on being a writer and working through the difficulties anyone in a challenging profession faces.

Chapter Books
Debbi Michiko Florence (Jasmine Toguchi and has a new series coming this summer)
Kara Lareau (Infamous Ratsos)
Megan Frazer Blakemore (middle grade but has a chapter book series coming)
David A. Kelly (Baseball park mysteries and MVP)
Jarrett Lerner (moderator and author of EngiNerds)
This was a panel I was really looking forward to. It was very interesting to hear how the different authors approached their chapter book series and I feel I have been remiss in not reading more Megan Frazer Blakemore and also I bet she is a really awesome school librarian! Hearing the different approaches was helpful in narrowing down how and why I'm choosing chapter books, a pretty big selection area for me.

What makes a good comic/graphic novel
Mel Schuit
Alex Graudins (science comics the brain)
Laura M. Jimenez (academic)
LeUyen Pham
Admittedly, at this point I was just automatically attending anything with LeUyen Pham, she was just that good. There were some great points made about how kids read visually as opposed to textually, some good talking points I can use to talk to teachers and parents who are reluctant for their kids to read graphic novels, and then some really interesting views on how to read graphic novels more deeply - I think that will be a major talking point as well.

Book Blogger Salon
A bunch of bloggers hung out and chatted. The basic takeaway was that blogging is primarily a resource or home base to point people back to - if you want the social aspect of it, people are on instagram or twitter. I refuse to tweet, I just can't add that, so I accept that my blogs will gradually fade into the obscurity from whence they came, but since I have always written them as a resource, first for myself and then for other librarians, I'm ok with them not being a social media point.

Reaching Readers part I
Anika Denise (Planting stories most recently, also she has one coming out with Ruth Cummins)
Debbie Kovacs (editor)
Barbara Fisch (publicist - Blueslip Media)
Josh Funk (How to code a sandcastle)
Lee Wind (moderator and author)
This part of the session focused on reaching readers from the viewpoint of authors, publishers, and editors. I still think that all booktalks should be done by librarians. Editors just aren't good at them! Not if they're trying to grab kids' attention anyways.

Reaching Readers part II
Sam Musher (school librarian)
Melissa Fox (bookstore)
Karen Yingling (school librarian)
This was a panel I was really looking forward to and I was disappointed that Cindy Rodriguez, of Latinx in Kid Lit, was unable to be there. However, one cannot be disappointed when faced with the indefatigable Ms. Yingling and her riotous energy. I strongly suspect her of getting up before everyone else to run several miles and read a couple books. Lots of great suggestions on promoting books to readers, finding the right books, and some great discussions about diverse books and their readers.

The Frightful Fantastic
Tui T. Sutherland (Wings of Fire, editor of Warriors)
Antoine Revoy (a new graphic novel called Animus)
David Neilsen (Dr. Fell and the playground of doom)
S. R. Toliver (academic)
Paula Willey (moderator - she's a librarian and writes a blog about horror)
This was the panel that all my book club kids will be agog to hear about! So, yes kids, that was really Tui Sutherland, she was very funny and friendly, and I got two books signed for summer reading prizes. Otherwise, there was a really interesting take on "horror" or just scary elements in books and how the authors view them. It was especially interesting to see the different ways they view their audience, with some thinking of scary stories as a "safe" place for kids while others, who work with kids who have no safe place, see them as a way to work out what the kids are dealing with in everyday life. Also, to my young readers, Tui Sutherland said she was never going to kill off Kinkajou and there is a new book coming out this summer and the next graphic adaptation next fall.

And that was it! It was a pretty intense two days of sessions and there were also a lot of authors there who weren't on panels. A couple I chatted with or wanted to but missed were
Rebecca Caprara (Magic of Melwick Orchard and she has a middle grade novel in verse coming)
Anna Meriano (Love sugar magic - I wanted to go to her panel, but Ami went so I got her notes)

Barbara Dee (I missed out on telling her that the kids love her books!)

I had a few hours on Sunday so I walked around a little of Providence with Ami and then went to the RISD art museum with Barbara. Then taxi, plane, bus, car, and finally home! Now I have the week of spring break off and I am spring cleaning...

ALA 2017; or, Meh

Okay, it seemed like a good idea back in February. I'd grab a couple roommates, take the train down to Chicago, and spend a few days at ALA. Then summer started and I was sick and things went wrong and I was tired and the listing of sessions didn't look enticing and my roommates couldn't come and I knew there was no way I could or would do anything social...

But I went (I mean, it was too late for a refund so....yeah). It wasn't the worst experience in my life. Maybe in the top ten. I made it through. I did get some good ideas and feedback from sessions and made some good connections in the exhibit hall. I feel like I should have gotten more out of it, but I was soooo tired and stressed. Oh well.

Sessions of note

• Stay and Play; or, Why does Canada have all the cool libraries? (I added that bit myself)
• This was probably the most organized and best presentation, asides from actual content. The librarians had organized the story of how they revitalized their library into three parts - programming, collections, and space. Of course, some things don't apply - dropping circulation is not an issue for my department (not yet anyways) and we are significantly smaller (both in size and budget). However, they had a lot of amazing ideas about reworking space, programming, analyzing collections, cleaning out storage, and getting the most out of your youth services department for patrons. I am all set to remake my shelves with castors so I can roll them! (ok, probably not but still...)
• Autism (again with the cool libraries Canada!)
• Most of the panel wasn't really helpful - they did provide some resources which I'll be trying, but the experience of directors, state librarians, etc. isn't really relevant to me. But the one youth services librarian (from Canada of course) was super helpful. She had practical tips about her work with autistic teens from programming to volunteering to hiring and we talked for a long time afterwards about ways to serve this population in our libraries.
• 52 weeks of summer learning
• This was the Chicago summer library presentation. While I didn't find a lot of the discussions of their program useful (and frankly am a little suspicious of exactly how "successful" the program really is, just from what I've picked up from front lines Chicago librarians in passing...but it's a totally different community of course) BUT they had great suggestions on collaborating with schools, collecting and analyzing data, and creating a more cohesive summer reading program that extends throughout the year. I also find the science aspect interesting and would like to use some of the ideas to streamline my reading programs and other activities throughout the year.

Exhibits of note

• WePlay. I was really glad I took the time to dig around in the random database and academic exhibits to find this one (why weren't they with the furniture? I have no idea!). They feature a lot of playscapes and toys built out of sturdy plastic. But, what really sets them apart from all the other toy companies I've looked at is that their products are designed around very specific developmental needs, based on universal design, and the very knowledgeable vendor gave me a lot of resources for connecting their materials with our children with special needs, as well as suggestions on connecting to this patron group. Expensive, but absolutely worth it. I will be spending a lot of time poring over this with Ms. Pattie.
• Zoobean/Beanstack. My simple online registration with Google forms has been very successful - about 10% of our total registrations were online so far this year. Jess and I have been looking at different online options and Beanstack looked like the best option for me, but I wasn't sure we could ever afford it. I got some good information from another librarian at a discussion meeting and then more from the vendor. I don't know that we can do it next year, but possibly the year after that I'll be able to write it into the budget. It sounds flexible enough that it will work with our nontraditional program.
• Browser Display Systems. I think the rest of the staff would have a collective breakdown if we tried to redo our dvd collection in these....but I'm really interested in just maybe doing the juvenile cds. Or gradually shifting over the children's dvds. So I can have more space for the Stay and Play ideas! And We Play systems! Ideas are percolating in my mind as I write! For the future of course. Not any time soon.
• Brown Dog Gadgets. I am not, as some of my colleagues claim, averse to technology. I simply want there to be a reason for purchasing it, other than "this looks really cool!" Also, I hate 3-D printers. Pleasingly, I discovered a vendor who, if they did not actually agree with me, was at least excellent at pretending to do so. And they're local! They have an excellent array of tech kits, exactly what I've been looking for to add to the teen maker space, and I got a nice educator's sample pack including bristlebots, solar cockroach, and several sewing projects. Nice! I will be using them to restock the teen maker space next year.

Books
Yeah, yeah, I know you're all going to be like "but what about the books!" and well....I get a lot of review copies (which I do NOT have to lug all over Chicago, bruising myself in odd places) so....yeah. Also, I kind of have a thing about celebrities, including authors. I refuse to stand in lines and I feel the whole author signing thing is just....weird. Ugh. However, I was pleased to meet Asia Citro and chat with her about science and fiction blends. I was disappointed that I missed Laurel Snyder (they moved her signing time!) because I wanted a signed copy of Charlie and Mouse for my colleague, who has two little boys. And, of course, Jon Scieszka is always a hoot and a nice guy to chat with. I did go back on Monday morning primarily to buy discounted nonfiction, specifically from Lerner. I picked up a lot of titles I had on my order list and many others. At 3 for $20 it was a really, really good deal!

• Galleys
• Keymaster's quest by Jason Lethcoe
• Beatrice Zinker upside down thinker by Shelley Johannes
• Click'd by Tamara Stone
• Epic crush of Genie Lo by F. C. Yee (only teen galley I picked up for myself)
• Hilde cracks the case: hero dog! by Hilde Lysiak (new Branches! I am SUPER EXCITED!!)
• Sled dog school by Terry Lynn Johnson (Ice dogs was super popular, so I expect this one will go well too)
• Abraham Lincoln Pro Wrestler by Steve Sheinkin (I didn't know about this one! Super excited! Mr. Sheinkin signed it for my new book club, Book Explosion!)
• When I was a turkey by Joe Hutto (asked for a galley of this new mg nonfiction)
• Bravelands: Broken pride by Erin Hunter (freely admit I do not plan to read this. I am not Ms. Yingling. It will be a prize for some lucky, lucky kid)
• Laura Ingalls is ruining my life by Shelley Tougas (recommended to me as a read-alike to Mother-Daughter Book Club)
• Elephant whisperer by Lawrence Anthony (another mg nonfiction I requested)
• Daniel Coldstar: The relic war by Stel Pavlou
• Before now by Norah Olson (ya)
• All's Faire in middle school by Victoria Jamieson (really excited about this one - will she get the "homeschooled to public school" transition right?)
• The handbook: no more rules by Jim Benton
• Sweetest kind of fate by Crystal Cestari (ya)
• Rosemarked by Blackburne (ya)
• Unearthed by Kaufman and Spooner (ya)
• Doldrums and the Helmsley Curse by Nicholas Gannon (picked this up for me - I didn't buy the first for the library)
• Snow and rose by Emily Winfield Martin (I asked for this one b/c I love Snow White and Rose Red...)
• Gamer squad by Kim Harrington (I wanted to read this so I was pleased I snagged a galley)
• Suee and the shadow by Ginger Ly (gn galley)
• Witch boy by Molly Ostertag (gn galley)
• Whistling in the dark by Shirley Hughes (historical fiction. I might not actually read it, but somebody will!)
• We are party people by Leslie Margolis (brand new title coming out in October! I asked for this one)
• Sinking the Sultana by Sally Walker (mg nf)
• Victor Dowd and the World War II Ghost Army (newest spy on history title! exciting!)
• Charlie & Mouse and Grumpy by Laurel Snyder
• Others
• Zoey and Sassafras dragons and marshmallows by Asia Citro
• I love this series soooo much and since Zoe starts with a Z...and I really, really want to use it in book clubs in the fall....I think I'm going to dig out money to add it to the series section even though it is not January. This is a measure of my true love! I was also quite pleased to meet Asia Citro and have her sign a book! (I will probably use this one as a prize, not add it to the collection, because it's signed). Also, Ms. Citro and her colleague had absolutely adorable skirts. SUPER adorable!
• Invisible Emmie by Terri Libenson
• This was a free giveaway of a hardcover. I bought a copy for the library and skimmed it - I found the twist at the ending really threw me, but I think it will be popular. I'll either add this as an additional copy or use it as a prize. I'm going to see how popular it is this summer.
• League of seven by Alan Gratz
• The author was signing free paperbacks. Steampunk rarely does well in my library and I have never forgiven Brett Helquist for illustrating my beloved Green Knowe series, but I will give this one a try.
• Frank Einstein and the antimatter motor; and the electro-finger
• Jon Scieszka was signing and there wasn't a line! He's a fun guy and I appreciated a couple copies to use for Bookaneers.
• Not quite narwhal by Jessie Sima
• Aww, I really, really wanted a copy of this and my picture book budget is mostly gone. Woo-hoo! Jessie Sima is as cute as her book too.
• Flashlight night by Esenwine and Koehler
• Koehler was signing and I got a copy for my colleague's kid. It's a different art style than in his previous books. Interesting.
• Coral reefs by Jason Chin
• This was a signed giveaway at Permabound (at least I think it was Permabound...) I haven't decided if I'll use it as a giveaway or an additional copy since I want to use this in a book club.