Being Nerdy At TLA

It's been a week since TLA (Texas Library Association) and although it may be too late to write a post about it, I'm going to write one anyway.  Life in the library has been super awesome & super busy, so I'm just now getting to it. I hope I am forgiven!

I won't write about every detail of the conference here. I did that already in my pink Moleskin notebook. There I have jotted down notes about the generous invitations, the new friends, the dinner conversations, impromptu gatherings, promises to collaborate, and ideas I cannot wait to implement in our library.   

I do want to say something here about my participation in the #nerdybookclub panel at TLA. I want to say that it was amazing and completely magical for me. I want to say that if you had told 8-year old me that many years later, I'd be speaking on a panel with authors and fellow educators, I'd have looked at you as if you were speaking a foreign language. I want to tell 8 year-old me living a life of lack, uncertainty, and hand-me-downs--the only reader in the family-- to keep on reading. Keep on reading!

Colby, John and me after our session

About my co-panelists: Colby Sharp and John Schu have such a contagious energy and I am so grateful for their friendship.  Jenni Holm, Kirby Larson, Linda Urban, and Tom Angleberger do such wonderful work not only in writing great books for kids, but in promoting reading and literacy as well. I consider them friends, too. 

The evening before, my friend author Alexander London gave me the best good luck talk! (He is an author after all!) It was tailored made for me and I wished I'd recorded it.

My new friend and amazing librarian Jennifer LaGarde wrote about our session in a blog post here and I am so grateful for her kind words.

To end this post, I will say this:

Reading takes you places you could never go on your own. If you want proof, I'm here.