ALA 2010 Part 1

I have lots of photos of ALA.

The first night started with a lovely dinner.

(l to r) Liz Hartmann, Executive Director of Publicity/Marketing at Macmillan, author/illustrator Peter Sis, me

Next it was lunch with my fabulous editor (FSG), the grande dame of children's book publishing, Frances Foster:

Frances Foster (right) and me


Then Frances and I headed over to the Convention Center:



The first person we ran into was David Small! He illustrated the cover of my first novel back in 1999. He wrote me a lovely note, which I still have in my scrapbook. It was great to be able to finally chat with him in person.

David Small (left) and his wife, Sarah Stewart



That night, Macmillan hosted a lovely dessert party. I finally got to meet my friend, fellow author Monika Schroder. Monika is the librarian at the American Embassy School in New Delhi, India. I felt like I'd known her forever. She is charming and smart and funny and likes me despite my Cafe Francais addiction.

Monika Schroder (left) and me

I scored some great swag. Here are my favorites. Monika's new book with FSG, Saraswati's Way, Kirby Larson's new book with Scholastic, The Fences Between Us and a beautiful elephant bookmark given to me by Monika.

Then I dashed over to the Scholastic booth to see my pal Kimberley Griffiths Little's new book, The Healing Spell. Also fun to see Debbie Wiles's Countdown and Cindy Lord's Touch Blue. (And I apologize if your book is in this photo and I didn't draw a red arrow over it. I'm sure I love it, too.)