Halfway Through My YA Lit Religious Experience

I went into NYC today to attend the ALAN workshop, "Helping Teens Discover a Sense of Self and Place Through Young Adult Literature." When I walked into the Marriott Times Square and went up to the 5th floor ballroom area to check in, they forked over a good-size cardboard box full of books -- hardcover, paperback, both brand new titles and older titles, and even some pre-pub reviewer copies of the newest books. All told it looks like about $250-300 worth of books! What a great "thanks for coming" gift! There were different book combinations in every box, so you weren't guaranteed to get any particular authors or books, but everyone got enough to get autographs from the authors who were there. (I got a bunch!)

Talk about heaven!

I sat with a couple hundred other English teachers, librarians and media specialists to hear a host of YA authors talk about their books and what they see as important with kids and reading. There were some new authors I wasn't familiar with, like the keynote speaker, Sherman Alexie. He was hilarious and a phenomenal speaker. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to him. His book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was awarded the National Book Award for the YA category last night. Chris Crutcher came up next, and had me in tears one minute and cheering like hell the next. All day, we had Brian Selznick, Peter Sis, Christopher Myers, Jacqueline Woodson, Patricia McCormick, Ben Mikaelson, Gloria Whelan, Holly Black, Lauren Myracle, Helen Frost, T.A. Barron, David Lubar (who came to speak even though today is his 30th anniversary -- he has quite the understanding wife!), Pete Hautman, and many other new authors, poets and playwrights. It was an amazing, exhausting day, and I loved it. And tomorrow is equally promising (but will be less exhausting as I will only be hauling in the books for the authors who are speaking tomorrow). Tons of notes, lots of great quotes on reading and writing. The ALAN presenters were also great -- went to a breakout session on encouraging reluctant readers that was a lot of fun.
Time to go crash... it's back on the train and the subway tomorrow. This is one of those things that is fun for a day or two but If I had to make that trip every day I would be miserable. Glad I don't have to!