BookExpo America 2009: Speed Dating with Authors and Illustrators
By Rocco Staino -- School Library Journal, 6/2/2009
Those attending this year’s Book Expo America in New York from May 29-31 had a chance to speed date—with their favorite children’s authors and illustrators.
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Sharon Draper shows off her Sassy sack. |
Sharon Draper introduced her new character Sassy (Scholastic, 2009), the nine-year-old character in her new series, by bringing along her patchwork Sassy Sack filled with super glue, lip gloss, and paperclips, which Sassy uses to help her friends out of various difficult situations.
Newbery Medalist Linda Sue Park handed out blue baseball caps with the name of her book Keeping Score (Clarion, 2008) emblazoned across the front. The story, set during the 1950s Korean War, is about a girl who loves the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Holly Black brought along geek candy and nerd pocket protectors to pitch Geektastic (Little, Brown, 2009), a collection of short stories from various authors, including Garth Nix, John Green, and Scott Westerfeld.
Illustrators Michael Rex (Goodnight Goon, Penguin, 2008) and cartoonists, James Sturm, Andrew Arnold, and Alexis Frederick-Frost (Adventures in Cartooning, Roaring Brook, 2009) all drew three minute sketches as they spoke about their latest books.
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Bill Thompson gives a PowerPoint on his laptop. |
Others took a more traditional approach. Amy Hest, author of When You
Lee Bantle talks about his latest book, David Inside Out.
Meet a Bear on Broadway (Farrar, Straus, 2009) and Gordon Korman, who wrote Pop (HarperCollins 2009), explained that their books are departures of their usual voice, with Korman taking on a more serious topic and Hest using a more whimsical tone in her latest picture book.
Lee Bantle described David Inside Out (Holt, 2009), a book that deals with the difficult topic of conflicted sexuality. And Don Calame offered a humorous look at three boys determined to see a girl naked in his Swim the Fly (Candlewick, 2009)
After 90 minutes of table hopping the authors and illustrators were exhausted, and more than 100 of their “prospective dates” anxious to try out their new books. There didn’t seem to be any telephone numbers exchanged.
