Lucky Me

I'm back. All went well. (Sigh of relief)

I did, indeed, have the correct laptop cord. My slides showed up beautifully. I had an interested audience, signed a few books, and I didn't spill coffee on myself. (I took an extra pair of pants, just in case. Is that paranoid or what? Maybe not, because I was wearing white, and driving with a steaming mug o' joe and chocolate milk.)

The best part was that I got to stay for the whole conference, and happened to luck into lunch with the keynote speaker, Deborah Taylor.

Deborah is Coordinator of School and Student Services for the Enoch Pratt Free Library. She (I'm pulling this right from the conference program) "has served on the 2004 Michael Printz Award Committee, the 2006 Printz Committee, the 2006 Best Books for Young Adults Committee, the 2002 Newbery Award Committee and was Chair of the 2000 Coretta Scott King Award Jury. She has also served on the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Committee and has reviewed for Horn Book."

In short, if I had to balance my plate of salad on my lap for half an hour in a lobby chair, instead of going upstairs to where the tables were laid out, it was a very small price to pay for that 30 minutes of intense conversation. Deborah loves books with a passion, and we discussed Looking for Alaska, and Black Juice (winner and honor the last time she served on the Printz) and feed and Octavian Nothing and M.T. Anderson's brilliance, and how he and Katherine Paterson offered dueling philosophies on hope in children's books at Children's Literature New England. We talked of Kadir Nelson, and Christopher Paul Curtis, and on and on.

And then, Ms. Taylor got up and gave a fantastic speech about Memory, Reason and Imagination, and filled her presentation with so many more mentions of great books that my to-be-read pile just doubled, I believe.

A lovely day. Oh, and I won a bag of books! How great is that?

On the Road

If you see a strange sight on I-95 South today, it's probably me and my dog and pony show, heading to the VEMA Rappahannock Regional Conference. (That's where all the cool Media Specialists gather.)

Well, I WISH I had a dog and pony I could take along, but it's just going to be me and my laptop and several thousand of my well-rehearsed words.

Wish me luck.

Let's catch up when I get back...

Did you ever...?

In honor of the start of National Poetry Month, and April Fool's Day, I give you Ogden Nash:

Reflection on Ingenuity

Here's a good rule of thumb;
Too clever is dumb.

Did you ever pull an April Fool's joke that backfired on you? (I'm thinking of all those people who dare to do pranks at work!)

What was the best prank you ever pulled or had pulled on you? (See below.)

Were you ever fooled into thinking that aliens had landed at your local airport? (I was, as a kid. By my dad. He made a recording that "broke into" the local radio station and announced it. All four of us kids begged to get in the car and be driven to the airport right that second.)

Happy April Fool's Day, and be clever (like my dad) but not TOO clever.