National Book Festival = Nirvana for Librarians

NationalBookFest
Originally uploaded by librarianjill

Tess, Catherine & I made a Librarian's Pilgrimage to the National Book Festival this past weekend. It was pure book-loving awesomeness. We went by Metro, and had a minor mishap when the farecard machine ate Catherine's husband's money and didn't give him a farecard in return. It did rain a bit, but not torrentially, and we had umbrellas so it was all good.
We waited in line more than an hour to get our books signed by Mo Willems, the author of some of our favorite picture books, and when we got up to the front I got to talk to him a for a minute and tell him about our plans for a "Mo Willems book party" at the library soon. He laughed and looked delighted and said, "Sounds like fun!" Sigh...
(Dear readers, you must understand that for a children's librarian like me, meeting Mo is like meeting a rock star. Only better.)
We also went to his talk/reading later in the afternoon.
See that book Tess is holding? That's a copy of "Big Frog Can't Fit In," which is a brand-new book by Mo that was on advance sale at the festival. Not available yet anywhere else! We all got one, and Mo signed them. It is a pop-up book. It is awesome.
I had such a good time with my librarian friends!
Special thanks goes to Catherine's husband Greg, who braved the incredible crush of people in the Book Sales tent to get us those 3 books, while we waited in the book-signing line. Above and beyond the call of duty, that was, and we love him for it.