Rotating through Austin\u2019s big cities, Texas Library Association likes to spread the wealth, so its annual conference only comes to Austin every four years. That means TLA ![](\"https:\/\/txla.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/TLA-2019-logo.png\"){kind=logo}
has only been to Austin a handful of times since I\u2019ve worked at BookPeople. I don\u2019t know if I just don\u2019t remember how busy it was the first couple of times or whether our programs have just grown to the point where we can accommodate most of the proposals that come our way, but now when TLA descends on Austin, it unleashes a literary whirlwind that makes the city seem like the nexus of the kidlit universe for a brief, glorious moment.
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<\/a>Andrea Beaty inspires the crowd.<\/p><\/div> Introducing my niece to a porcine wonder.<\/p><\/div> A bookseller revels in the weeklong literary whirlwind wrought by the Texas Library Association’s conference. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29351\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nHelping facilitate 16 children\u2019s book events in\u00a07 days with talents such as Alice Kuipers, Ann Braden, Dan Santat, Rhett Miller, Kate DiCamillo, Chris Van Dusen, Ashley Poston, Kathleen Glasgow, Tom Angleberger, Andrea Beaty, Ra\u00fal the Third, Adam Gidwitz, and David Bowles, we\u2019ve certainly had our hands full. A\u00a0schedule this complicated never goes off without a hitch of some kind, but although\u00a0Tom Angleberger\u2019s flight cancellation caused him to miss\u00a0his school event, he made sure we got\u00a0signed bookplates\u00a0once he arrived so the kids still get something special to take home. Never underestimate the power of a bookplate in a pinch!
\nWe split up hosting the school events among different members of our team, but I personally had the <\/a>pleasure of joining Ra\u00fal the Third on the road.\u00a0Although I don\u2019t get to spend the day at school events as often as I\u2019d like anymore, they are honestly my very favorite kind of events to attend because of the unexpected moments of discovery and connection that always seem to bubble to the surface. From a teacher who instantly recognized the mountains of El Paso in the background of \u00a1<\/em>Vamos<\/em>!\u00a0Let’s Go to the Market<\/em> to another whose grandmother used to carry blocks of ice on her back just like the iceman in\u00a0the Mercado, I loved\u00a0seeing the small\u00a0details that resonated with readers from within\u00a0this vibrant celebration of commerce and community.
\nIt was also fun to see the kids respond to Ra\u00fal’s drawing demos and encouragement to take inspiration from everything they see, even if it’s just what they can find on the ground. Plus, he\u00a0revealed a handy pro secret.\u00a0If you accidentally make a picture that seems kinda boring, don’t throw it away. Take that boring cat, dull dog, or bland bunch of rocks\u00a0and just add spikes! Spikes: not just for cacti\u00a0anymore!<\/a>
\nOur instore events\u00a0have been just as\u00a0fun this week. I was\u00a0unfortunately unable to attend the Dan Santat, Rhett Miller evening event for\u00a0No More Poems<\/em>, but I heard that they were a riot, with Dan\u00a0and Rhett drawing and composing poetry (respectively) off the cuff, with input from the\u00a0audience. I\u00a0guess the highlight was a hilarious extemporaneous poem entitled\u00a0\u00a0“My Lawn Is Gone. Thanks, Aliens!”
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\nThe next\u00a0evening, I brought my own kids and two nieces to the Mercy Watson pig-a-palooza\u00a0 I anticipated in my blog last week<\/a>.\u00a0It was my four-year-old’s first author event that he actively cared about before walking in. He can\u2019t get enough of the Mercy Watson\u00a0series right now, reading them all over the house,\u00a0stashing them in the car, and popping around corners to ask\u00a0probing questions about Francine Poulet\u2019s motivations at odd, unexpected moments. So I was excited to see what he thought of the event.
\nHe did not want to get close to the giant Mercy Watson (although his awestruck cousin had no such qualms), and he did get a little wiggly\u00a0at times. But he\u00a0was mesmerized by\u00a0the read-aloud and absolutely loved when Chris taught Kate how to sketch\u00a0the character of Eugenia, with frown, wrinkles, angry brows and all. “Why is she always so mad?” he asked breathlessly.\u00a0 On the way home I asked him if he liked the new book. He said yes. I asked if he liked when they\u00a0made the funny drawings. He nodded enthusiastically. Then he paused for a long beat and\u00a0murmured pensively while staring out the window: “I liked all the words too.” I don’t know about you, but that counts as a\u00a0home run to me.
\nOn a personal <\/a>note, TLA also brings\u00a0industry friends to town that we don\u2019t see often enough. On Monday I was lucky enough to kick off the week with a\u00a0wonderful dinner with my friend and former boss, Crown publisher Phoebe Yeh, a couple of librarians, and\u00a0author Nic Stone, from whom we got to hear a a few tantalizing details about upcoming projects. Of course Phoebe and I also had to take a (very dark) selfie to commemorate the moment. Thanks so much to all the authors, illustrators, and publishing\u00a0folk who stopped by the store to browse, left us notes, or signed stock. We’ve loved having you here. Come back anytime, y’all!
\n(Yeah, no. Fourteen years isn’t long enough. I still can’t pull off that y’all. Maybe by the time TLA comes back to town…)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"