Sunday 12 July 2009

I Love Librarians


I'm so glad I got to go to the American Library Association Conference this weekend. 

Okay. I'll confess: part of the charm was that I got to have my very first book signing. It felt pretty strange to get to scratch my name across the title page of my ARC, the wonderful smell of book pages wafting up to me as I did it. And I got to sit next to the amazing Kathryn Fitzmaurice while I did it. (See picture!)
I'll also admit that part of the charm was getting to meet my editor in person for the first time. It was amazing to finally see her after nearly a year of phone conversations about The Everafter.

And the opportunity to pick up ARCs from several different Harper Collins imprints? The teacher in me was squealing inside with delight. Had to contain her so as to maintain something approaching a professional demeanor. 

But what was beyond amazing was meeting so many dedicated, enthusiastic and passionate librarians.  They made me stop to think about how important (even if quietly waiting in the wings) librarians and school librarian parapros have been to me for my whole life. I remember them helping me find books in elementary school, giving me writing contest information in high school, taking me on tours of MSU's monstrously large library in college. How would I have made it through my first year teaching high school history without the help of the building's librarian? She was phenomenal.  Today, the librarian in the building I work in still goes to bat for me whenever I ask for help with something. She's an incredible and enthusiastic resource. And who did I see right away at ALA as I was getting ready to sign books for my first time ever? My local East Lansing Public librarian--a long time co-conspirator in bringing mid-grade, young adult and teen novels to kids.   Even though so many of the other librarians who have impacted me throughout my life weren't or couldn't physically be there, all the others who were brought home to me what stars librarians have always been in my life.

Thanks, guys. You're amazing.

3 comments:

  1. Nice post. I owe a lot to the librarians in my life too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great to read about this since we haven't been able to talk. Sounds like an amazing experience.

    ReplyDelete

My Good Reads...

Amy's bookshelf: read

The Other Boleyn Girl
The Twentieth Wife: A Novel
Conrad's Fate (Chrestomanci, #5)
Circle of Friends
The Handmaid's Tale
Faery Rebels: Spell Hunter
Dairy Queen
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance - Now With Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!
Possession: A Romance
The Call of Earth
The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Lovely Bones
What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist-The Facts of Daily Life in Nineteenth-Century England
The Hunt for Red October
To Kill a Mockingbird
City of Bones
How to Be Good
Great Expectations
The Thirteenth Tale
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Joy Luck Club
Beloved
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Wives and Daughters
Howl's Moving Castle
The Kite Runner
Nothing But the Truth
Anne of Green Gables
About a Boy
Doctor Thorne
Romeo and Juliet
Among the Hidden
The Color Purple
World Without End
The Children of Men
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Sarum: The Novel of England
Doomsday Book
The Golden Compass
Year of Wonders
Memoirs of a Geisha
Flowers for Algernon
The Subtle Knife
Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
The Valley of Horses
A Tale of Two Cities
Uglies
Bridget Jones's Diary
Dune
The Serpent's Tale
Angels & Demons
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
Dracula
Among the Impostors
The Frog Princess
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
The Nanny Diaries
The Ships of Earth
Charlie Bone and the Beast
Spanking Shakespeare
Ender's Shadow
Wake
A Farewell to Arms
Emma
The Outsiders
Frankenstein
Witch Week
Allegra Maud Goldman
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Fellowship of the Ring
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Ellie McDoodle: New Kid in School
Charlie Bone and the Hidden King
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Charlie Bone and the Shadow
Among the Barons
The Name of the Rose: Including Postscript
Thirteen Reasons Why
The Crucible
Charmed Life
Ellie McDoodle: Have Pen, Will Travel
Timeline
Framley Parsonage
The Time Traveler's Wife
The Man Who Was Poe
Girl with a Pearl Earring
Little Women
The Shadow of the Wind
The Pillars of the Earth
Ender's Game
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
Night
Charlie Bone and the Invisible Boy
The Clan of the Cave Bear
The Secret Life of Bees
The Shifter
An Inspector Calls


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