The Golden Kite Luncheon...























Over plates of rubber chicken (Lin Oliver said it, not me. I had the vegetarian meal) SCBWI conference-goers had the pleasure of hearing from the 2007 Golden Kite winners. Here is the list of award recipients:

• Tony Abbott won the Golden Kite Award for Fiction for his book Firegirl published by Little, Brown and edited by Alvina Ling.
• Russell Freedman won the Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction for The Adventures of Marco Polo published by Scholastic imprint Arthur A. Levine Books and edited by Arthur Levine.
• Walter Dean Myers won the Golden Kite for Picture Book Text for Jazz, illustrated by Christopher Myers, published by Holiday House and edited by Regina Griffin.
• Larry Day won the Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Illustration for Not Afraid of Dogs written by Susanna Pitzer, published by Walker & Company and edited by Emily Easton.

Also during this luncheon, Sara Pennypacker accepted the Sid Flieschman Humor Award for her book Clementine. (This is when she made me tear up.)

Then there was the singing contest. Each table received lyrics to moon-themed songs (a conference theme--the by-the-pool party was the By the Light of the Silvery Moon Gala). They picked the numbers of five or six tables, and one volunteer from that table got up and belted out a song, a cappella. And guess what? They picked our table. No, I didn't volunteer (although I would have if no one else did--I think it's healthy to make a fool of oneself in from of a roomful of strangers every so often). Our enthusiastic volunteer was Tyler McBroom. Unfortunately I had gone up to my room for a few minutes and missed all the singing. I hear it was fabulous (a semi-off-key-but-very-enthusiastic kind of fabulous) But, even though I missed the performances, as a member of table #10, I got a $20 gift certificate for the SCBWI bookstore as prize. Thanks Tyler! I'm enjoying my new SCBWI t-shirt I got for free because you sang us a little Van Morrison.