just another bronx girl

Well, I'm back from New Orleans, and I have to say, ALA was truly a whirlwind! Wow! What an experience!

I arrived there on Saturday morning, and I think I was overwhelmed from the very beginning. DAVID LEVITHAN and I went to the Margaret Edwards luncheon honoring JACQUELINE WOODSON, and she gave such a wonderful, heartfelt speech, I actually teared up. She was great, and it was nice to see her get honored. Then David and I went to the exhibit hall where all of the publishers were giving out advance reader copies of every single book I want to read. An hour later, I had a bag of books way too heavy to carry, but that didn't stop me. I had to get more! This convention is a book lover's heaven, let me tell you. And just walking around, I ran into a lot of authors, namely JACQUELINE WOODSON, AN NA, NIKKI GRIMES, SCOTT WESTERFIELD, and JUSTINE LARBALESTIER.

On Saturday night, Scholastic had a nice informal dinner in the hotel where I got to meet so many fabulous authors and illustrators: ANN M. MARTIN, LISA YEE, NORMAN BRIDWELL, PAM MUNOZ RYAN, JOHN J. MUTH, JONAH WINTER, MARK TEAGUE and many, many more. Then we went to the French Quarter for an outdoor party. We all got fancy masks with feathers and sequins, and we wore beads in all colors and sizes. It was fun. There was a psychic at our party. Now I don't normally take part in such things, and for about two hours ADRIENNE MARIA VRETTOS and I debated getting our futures read. When we finally decided to go for it, she went first, and then the bus came to pick us up and take us back to the hotel, and I never got to find out my fate. Oh well...

The next morning was the Scholastic Brunch. Now I love brunches, except I was reading at this brunch, and reading in public scares me. A LOT. Also, I had lost my voice the night before and I woke up very hoarse. I was FREAKIN' OUT. The whole reason I was there was to read. How would I be able to read if I sounded like that? OH NO!!!

I went downstairs to the brunch and when PAM MUNOZ RYAN heard my voice she offered to go outside, across the street, to buy me some cough drops! Like, how nice is that??? She was so incredible sweet to me. During the brunch, I nursed my throat with the trifecta of throat aids: hot tea, honey, cough drops. I was trying everything! But, in a way, I think the voice actually worked for me. Since my character is a boy, reading with this new deep voice helped me "channel" him. I really FELT like Tyrell while I was reading. It turned out to be a lot of fun actually.

After the brunch, we went over to the convention center, where I had my very first signing. Ever. It was a group signing for all five of us who had read at the brunch (ANN M. MARTIN, JORDAN SONNENBLICK, TRACY MACK, MICHAEL CITRIN, AND ME.) After about a half hour of signing, I had to just exclaim out loud, "I'm signing books next to Ann M. Martin! This is surreal!" It was great. And she's just the nicest woman.

That night, I got to get all dressed up to go to the Newbery/Caldecott Awards Dinner with the whole bunch from Scholastic. We had a wonderful time. Although, I have to say, being a vegetarian in New Orleans is quite the challenge. I don't think they have a whole lot of vegetarians there because all weekend David and I were getting strange looks from the waiters/waitresses. One waitress was so intimidating-looking, David and I were a bit afraid to ask her if there was a "vegetarian option." I almost just ate the meat so she wouldn't be mad at me! But we asked, and an hour later, after we had already eaten dessert (of course), she did bring some kind of steamed vegetables out for us. Begrudgingly.

On Monday, before I left New Orleans, LISA YEE, her agent Jodi Reamer, and I went on a tour of the areas that were devastated by Hurricane Katrina. It was very sad to see whole neighborhoods that were just no longer there. All of the homes were damaged, and the emptiness of the streets was very unsettling. I was seeing the empty homes but thinking about the people who lived there. Where were they? Were they alright? These were whole communities of families and schools and stores that were just gone. There is a lot of rebuilding going on though. And even in the areas that were hit the worst, small stores had reopened and people were trying to fix their homes. There's a lot to be done, but at least some people are able to begin. There's hope. (I'm really glad the ALA had their convention there. The city needed it. Every cab driver I spoke to expressed how happy he was that we were there. It was like a sign that other conventions would follow and things would soon get back to normal. I hope that's true!!!)


But overall, the whole weekend was so great, I don't think I can really explain it all. It was overwhelming. A lot of people told me they liked my reading, and they were excited to read TYRELL. It's strange to think that people I don't know will be reading my book. All the librarians I met were so kind and funny and supportive. I can't say enough good things about them.

Whew! What a weekend!