BEA Children's Book & Author Breakfast...

I got up dreadfully early again this morning to get to the 8 a.m. children's author breakfast (and I use the term "breakfast" loosely. It was orange juice and a mini bagel. For $35. Librarians kept sitting down at my table asking if we were getting eggs or something. Afterwards I went to the food court) featuring Mo Willems, Jacqueline Wilson, Daniel Pinkwater, and hosted by the delightfully funny Libba Bray. (Libba did several minutes of mime during her opening and still managed to engage the audience.)

I've heard Mo speak several times before, and he's always wonderfully witty. He included his lessons on how to draw the Pigeon. Here's mine:




Jacqueline Wilson is the Children's Laureate for the UK. She's offering a session tomorrow arguing for a US Children's Laureate. I loved hearing that she feels we're in a golden age of children's literature and that she talks to at conferences, libraries and, Parliament (!) about the importance of children's books.

As for Daniel Pinkwater, was it just me or did he sorta forget to write a speech? We got a little of the funny in the beginning, then a cute-ish story about a little girl fan of his. Despite that, it was still cool to be in the same room as Daniel Pinkwater.