ALA Anaheim--Books, Authors and Mouse Ears

On Friday, I flew from Tokyo to Los Angeles for the ALA annual conference held this year in Anaheim. Palm trees, great Mexican food, books, librarians and scads of authors made for a perfect weekend.

librarians everywhere!

Anaheim Convention Center

At the Random House booth, Orchards, sporting the APALA award sticker, was displayed among the award-winning titles.

Random House booth

I checked out the many publisher booths, including that of Lee & Low Books

Lee & Low Booth

and Consortium, which was carrying Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction.

Consortium booth

There were long snaking lines for author signings...and I was so glad to catch Cynthia Kadohata with whom I'd corresponded regarding Tomo...

Cynthia Kadohata

David Levithan...

David Levithan signing The Letter Q

and Spider-Man.

Spiderman and fan

I caught a few author talks, including one with John Irving

John Irving reading from In One Person

another with Glee celebrity turned middle-grade author Chris Colfer

Chris Colfer on The Land of Stories

and the panel of Teens Making a Difference with William Kamkwamba and Talia Leman.

William Kamkwamba, author of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wine and Talia Leman, author of A Random Book about the Power of Anyone

I signed copies of Orchards

signing copies of Orchards

and on Saturday evening enjoyed the Random House party in Downtown Disney where Orchards was celebrated

Orchards poster

Random House ALA Award Winners

and where Random House president Chip Gibson bestowed upon the award winners Mickey Mouse ears.

L to R: Random House president Chip Gibson, Wendelin Van Draanen, Holly Thompson, Craig Silvey, Chris Raschka and Jenny Hubbard

The APALA Literature Awards ceremony was held on Sunday morning with speeches by winning authors in different categories:

Ken Min, illustrator of Hot Hot Roti for Dada-ji

Wendy Shang, author of The Great Wall of Lucy Wu

Sheela Chari, author of Vanished

with Gene Luen Yang and Thien Pham, author and illustrator of the graphic novel Level Up

Unfortunately I had to depart to catch a plane for the East Coast so couldn't stick around to chat more with these fun APALA winners. Hope to see more of them in the future! 

Thank you to Random House for a great time at ALA Anaheim.