Maw Books

Maw Books – book reviews, book recommendations, book lists, author interviews and more!

This is my third post about attending the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. I previously posted a vlog with Trish and Amy and also a photo post about meeting some wonderful book bloggers.  Today’s post is all about the authors!  I LOVE authors!  I can not believe how many wonderful authors I was able to meet, bummed that there wasn’t enough time in the day to meet everybody there, and then even more bummed when I discovered authors were there after the fact.

I ended up sticking around the children’s area most of the time.  I wish I could have been everywhere at once!  First off, I have a vlog where I show off my signed books, talk about the authors and pretty much smile because I’m still so happy.  I do overlap with my written summations below as well.

Jacqueline Woodson was one of the authors that I was really looking forward to meeting!  I’m late to the game and only started reading Woodson’s books this past year and each one that I read just gets better than the first!  I was estatic when a couple of months ago, I received an email and the sender said Jacqueline Woodson.  No way that it was the Jacqueline Woodson.  She said thank you for reviewing her books and that I had a beautiful family.  After listening to Woodson on a panel (more details about that in a later post), I was able to catch up with her while she was walking to her book signing.  I told her that she probably didn’t remember me but she sent me a nice email once.  When I explained, she immediatly said, “Yes, the one with the beautiful family!”  And then later while she was in a booth we were able to snap a photo and chat a bit more.  She offered to take me all around Brooklyn when I come up for Book Expo America.  While I don’t think I have time to take her up on the offer (but how cool if I had an extra day!!), isn’t that sweet to say so in the first place?  She’s just as great as I thought she would be.  Books I’ve reviewed by Woodson are  Peace, Locomotion, Locomotion,  Show Way, Feathers,  If You Come Softly and Behind You.  Jacqueline Woodson’s website.

Ah . . . Kathryn Fitzmaurice was a total and VERY pleasant surprise for me.  I had no idea that she was there until I happened upon her booth while she was signing.  When she discovered who I was she jumped up and gave me a huge hug!  It was SO nice to talk to Kathryn and I felt as though we were both gushing over each other. Incredibly nice!  I reviewed Kathryn’s debut novel The Year the Swallows Came Early and have an author interview as well.  The best part?  Kathryn sent me another signed copy of her book (because I”m not giving up mine!) to give away!  So watch for it with a guest post from Kathryn.  Kathryn Fitzmaurice’s website.

We check out David Shannon’s books so often from the library that I often ask myself how come we actually own so few of them?  I was brave and bought two books, David Gets in Trouble and No, David, that were not board books.  Very scary in my house.  David was fantastic and I’m thrilled to have met him.  If you have kids or know any kid, you’ve got to get David’s books.  David Shannon’s website.

I attended a middle grade fiction panel that included Newbery author Susan Patron.  I had her newest book Lucky Breaks already checked out from the library at home, so it only made perfect sense that I get a copy of my own.  Susan was fantastic and agreed to an author interview as well, so that’s exciting!  The Higher Power of Lucky was one of the very first books that I reviewed when I started my blog.

How can you not like Jon Scieszka?  Two of our favorite books in our house are The Stinky Cheese Man and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs.  So much so that they are up high on the shelf and the kids actually aren’t allowed to read them on their own.  So bummed I didn’t bring my own copies to get signed so I decided to get Math Curse and Science Verse to add to our collection.  When I got home and showed my husband, he was really bummed that I didn’t get The Stinky Cheese Man autographed instead.  I didn’t want to buy a duplicate copy, I explained.  Apparently, I made the wrong decision.

Another author/illustrator that I was SO excited to meet (I waited outside his booth until he showed up because I didn’t want to miss him) was Kadir Nelson. Look at this photo.  He looks even twice as gorgeous in person, which roughly means, he’s really good looking!  And SO modest and quiet spoken!  I was not expecting that.  Nelson is simply AMAZING.  Like Woodson, I have a lot of his back titles to go through.  The two that I have reviewed which he illustrated are Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story From the Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine and Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford.  I had him sign Henry’s Freedom Box and We Are the Ship: The Story of the Negro League Baseball (book website) which he wrote and illustrated and received many accolades for.  I hope to review it soon!  Kadir Nelson website.

Another surprise was Judy Blundell, National Book Award author of What I Saw and  How I Lied.  I’ve had this book in my reading pile forever.  She was incredibly nice and I’m bumping that baby up to the top of the pile.  One of the questions I asked her was what it was like when she became a National Book Award winner.  She said when she got the call that she was nominated that she literally didn’t speak for a few minutes.  The people on the other end of the phone line thought she had passed out or something.  Excited to have met her.   Judy Blundell website.

How about all the authors I missed?!  I should have taken another photo of me and Laurie Halse Anderson to at least prove that I saw her again, but didn’t.  I attended her panel and afterwards she saw me and crossed the lobby to give me a hug hello.  The nicest woman ever.  So sad to realize Mary Pearson, author of The Adoration of Jenna Fox was there and I missed her.  One of my biggest disapointments was coming home and then realizing via Twitter that Jennie Nash, author of The Last Beach Bungalow and The Only True Genius in the Family, had signed.  I’ve reviewed both of her books and she’s done a guest post and an interview with me.  I would have loved to meet her.  SO SAD!

I missed Ingrid Law even though I brought two copies of Savvy from home for her to sign.  I missed her panel and couldn’t find her later. I did attend Kate DiCamillo’s panel, which was fantastic, but her line for signing was HUGE!  I also brought books from home as well but just lugged them on back unsigned.  Of Kate’s books I’ve reviewed Great Joy, The Tale of Desperaux, Tiger Rising, Because of Winn Dixie, and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.

I also attended a panel with Patrick Carmen and even asked a question.  His line for signing Skeleton Creek was pretty long (that’s him on the left) and I felt pretty weird approaching him without a book to sign (I didn’t want to rebuy  it when I already had it at home).  And of course, Eric Carle was mobbed.  No chance in meeting him without being in line hours before he showed.  Other authors that I would have LOVED to have met but didn’t were Jane Smiley, S.E. Hinton, Luis Alberto Urrea, Janet Fitch and Lisa See among others.  Watch for one final and last post where I recap the panels that I went to!

All in all, it was a wonderful time!  Authors are the best!!

Hey you! Yes. You! I've noticed that you've stopped by to visit a few times! But I don't know who you are. Why don't you take a moment and introduce yourself. Don't be scared. I try not to bite. I know you're a lurker but I'd love to hear your thoughts about what's been bringing you here. And if you haven't done so already, don't forget to never miss a post by subscribing to my feed or receiving updates by email. Thanks for visiting!