ALAN 2011

The first day of the ALAN 2011 workshop began for ALAN BOD folks at 6:30 am. We headed down to the ballroom where flats of books awaited us. I had brought 8 box cutters along (in checked luggage) and markers and ALAN postcards as well. So, off we all went, supervised by President Wendy Glenn and Book Maven Walter Mayes. By the time registrants began showing up at 7-ish, we were pretty much organized. I worked registration until the local folks showed up, so I had the chance to greet one of the Gallo Grant recipients, Elizabeth Sturgis, whose registration was paid by the grant (I later met Marsha Boyd the other Gallo Grant winner). Visit our web site for forms and information (www.alan-ya.org).

The day opened with the brilliant Tobin (M. T.) Anderson who made us laugh and made us think with his keynote.



Laurie Halse Anderson brought the day to a stunning and stunned close as she delivered her presentation from the floor of the stage. I am happy to report that Laurie is now recovered (mostly) from her food poisoning, but we were one quiet audience as she was transported to the hospital.

The luminaries for the workshop are numerous. Carolyn Mackler and Jay Asher spoke about THE FUTURE OF US:



David Levithan called for us to be an Army of Empathy as ALAN ended for another year.



If you are on Twitter, you can search using the #ALAN11 hashtag to see some of the highlights from the presentations. It was a fast paced and wonderful 2 days. Make plans now to join us in Las Vegas for ALAN 2012. Breakfast speaker will be Scott Westerfeld!

NCTE recap Part IV: Sunday

By Sunday, I was in full conference mode and in a haze as well. Lots of presentations and meetings and running to and fro. Sunday was actually rather calm in comparison. I chaired my first ever ALAN Board of Directors meeting. From the BOD to the ALAN Reception next.



Met Kristen Chandler and Francisco Stork there and renewed talk to Rita Williams-Garcia, Coe Booth, and many more.

Having survived that, I headed out to dinner with the amazing and talented Victoria Stapleton from Little Brown. Dinner was with AS King, Matthew Quick, and Sara Zarr. I got to sit next to Donalyn and Victoria. There was never a dull moment.







Back to the hotel for in the morning, the #alan11 WORKSHOP WOULD BEGIN.

NCTE recap Part III: Saturday

Saturday was like a roller coaster ride. Fast, furious, lots of curves, screaming, laughing, and finally relief to have survived. it began at 6 am when I headed down to help set up for the ALAN Breakfast. This was my first breakfast as the ALAN Executive Secretary, and I was so nervous even though all I had to do was make a few announcements.

Gary Salvner received the Hipple Award for his considerable contributions to ALAN and gave the most stirring speech I can recall hearing in some time. I do hope THE ALAN REVIEW sees fit to publish it. Sharon Draper received the ALAN Award for her contributions to YA literature and was equally eloquent and moving. And then, Jacqueline Woodson delivered the after breakfast speech. Wowwza! Triple whammy.

Here is a photo done with Toon Paint showing James Dashner, Marshall George, and the lovely Adrienne Waintraub at breakfast courtesy of Random House. I did tweet out from the breakfast as well. If you search Twitter, use #alan11 hashtag and username @ProfessorNana.



I did a quick tour of the exhibits that grew lengthier as I kept running into folks. I also had a meeting with my editor at Stenhouse about a couple of projects. Then, onto the shuttle to the Palmer House for the Middle Mosaic where I spoke along with Kate Messner, Janet Allen, and Gordon Korman. My presentation (all of them) are at Slideshare.net/ProfessorNana.

After I spoke, I went up two floors to join Donalyn Miller, Franki Sibberson, and Sara Kajder for a session on engaging readers with digital texts and tools. Of course we experienced some technical issues. Sara had to use my dongle (there was much hilarity about my magic dongle), my own connections had to be held so they did not slip, etc. However, as Donalyn observed when it was all over, each of us was tweeting, buying apps, and tools as the others were speaking. When is the last time that happened? it was a whirlwind 75 minutes. I learned a LOT!

Dinner that evening was courtesy of Candlewick. Katherine Paterson, Laura Amy Schlitz, Chris Crowe, MT Anderson, Allan Wolf, Abby MacDonald. Great food and fun and conversation ranging from zombies to Common Core to books (of course). Thanks Jenny and Sharon and Liz for a delightful evening.