ALA Anaheim Wrap-Up!

Gene Yang, myself, Derek Kirk Kim, Faith Erin Hicks, and Thien Pham -- photo by Lark Pien

A fantastic time was had at this year's American Library Association Annual Conference.

ALA was in Anaheim this time, which meant Dave and I went to Disneyland...twice! We brought our friends Jerzy and Anne Drozd along on the first trip...it was Jerzy's first time at a Disney theme park, which is incomprehensible to me! I've been going since I was a tiny kid, and it's still my favorite, favorite thing.

Then, Dave and I went back by ourselves on our last night in town. We rode the new CARS ride (so much fun!) and the Little Mermaid ride (I admit I teared up!), and revisited a bunch of rides I haven't been on in years. Snow White's Scary Adventures really holds up!

California Girl, California Adventure

Right, so also, there was a conference!

Highlights: Signing DRAMA galleys for the never-ending line of librarians; the Scholastic Literary Brunch where I read a scene from my book with three other authors...and David Shannon did a bang-up job with one of the singing parts; the first few hours of Cartoonist Artist Alley on Friday evening, where we were all loopy and excited; the COMICS QUICKFIRE CHALLENGE event on Saturday; riding to the Scholastic dinner with a bunch of authors in a red stretch Hummer limo with an open back; the Newbery-Caldecott banquet, watching the Legend of Korra finale with a bunch of fellow geeks...and of course, all the meetups, parties, hang-outs, and great conversations with so many awesome people!! Everyone I meet at ALA instantly feels like a friend.

Thank you SO much to everyone at Scholastic, as well as all the amazing people I got to spend time with in Anaheim--cartoonists, librarians, kids, teachers, READERS! You are all awesome!

This coming weekend I'm off on a two-headed adventure: Kids Read Comics in Ann Arbor, MI, and then on to Comic-Con International in San Diego. Which means I'll be posting again SOON! Till then...