Home from the ALA

The day I spent at the American Library Association convention was long and intense, full of talking to exceedingly intelligent librarians. How I know they were exceedingly intelligent is this: I do not normally talk in my sleep, but the night after the convention, I woke myself up out of a sound slumber by saying aloud the words “And what, exactly, does the term ‘critical mass’ mean in this context?”

I wish I could remember the dream that led me to that sentence. It doesn’t seem as if it could possibly be much like most of my dreams, which usually involve things like cats sleeping in unlikely places, assorted family members doing unlikely things, me being involved in unlikely projects (such as replacing the roof on my house with something pink and fluffy that looked rather like cotton candy) or with mundane things like forgetting my passport on an important international trip, and, very occasionally, a flying car. (Back in the 1950s, when I was growing up, all the World Of The Future! science films we saw in school featured the flying cars of the 21st century. I’m still waiting for mine…)

Back to the ALA. Most of the day, I spent indoors, signing books and talking to the aforementioned intelligent librarians and meeting other, truly amazing authors (I got to sit next to Jackie Robinson’s daughter Sharon for a while at the autograph session – she has a new picture book out about an incident in her childhood that is just…just…oh, go read it. It’s Testing the Ice, illustrated by Kadir Nelson.). Twice, though, I got outside, and walking down Michigan Avenue I got all nostalgic. It’s been a long time since I walked through downtown Chicago, and even though a lot has changed visually, it still has the same feel and the same dusty-rusty-damp-smoky-hotdogs-and-onions smell. I need to get back down there before the Harry Potter exhibit leaves the Museum of Science and Industry…

The awards banquet was wonderful. (Which is not something I thought I’d ever say about an awards banquet, but it was the Newbery/Caldecott/Wilder awards, so all of the speeches were interesting.) Beth Krommes, the Caldecott winner, got things off to a good solid start. Watching Neil Gaiman get a Newbery Medal couldn’t be anything but fun, and Ashley Bryant, who was awarded the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for lifetime achievement, is as much a performance artist as he is illustrator. I am so glad they gave us each a souvenir recording of the speeches!

The only down side was that the banquet didn’t finish until 11, they had a “meet the winners” reception after, and I still had an hour’s drive back to my Dad’s place before I could get to bed…and I’d been up since 5 a.m. If I ever do a one-day ALA again, I’m getting a hotel room, even if it’s in my current stomping grounds.

Now I’m back home again, and all I have to do is get caught up.