Young Readers Symposium

Last week I was lucky enough to hear attend a young readers symposium with my mom, sister and sisters-in-law.  It was an amazing experience and we got to hear from some truly incredible people!  On of my favorites was this illustrator Tom Lichtenheld.  He's written and illustrated some amazing books like Goodnight, Goonight Construction Site, What are You so Grumpy about and Bridget's Beret (Sophia's favorite).  He also has co-written some with Amy Krouse Rosenthal who is equally amazing.  They've written books like the OK Book and Duck Rabbit.  They just came out with one called Wumbers and it's great.  It's kind of like CDB if you're a fan of that one.  Anyway, here he is showing some of his illustrations.

One kind of fun thing he did was he asked the audience if any of them have had some sort of mishap happen to them recently. I raised my hand and said that my daughter spilled an entire (HUGE) carton of yogurt in our car the day before.  He took that and quickly turned it into a story complete with illustrations.  It was so fun and Sophia got a kick out of it when we got home.

Here I am with him and Sophia's story.  I later had him sign a book for her and he wrote "thanks for spilling your yogurt."  I thought that was kind of funny.  At least I can laugh about it now because at the time it was not funny!

Another amazing author we got to hear from was Amy Krouse Rosenthal.  She was incredible!  She's written fun books like Little Pea, Spoon, and Cookies.  It was seriously so fun to hear her speak.  She was like a breath of fresh air.  Aside from writing amazing books she's recently been into making short films.  She made this one (it was actually a whole little project that went on for 4 years) called the Beckoning of Lovely.  So inspiring.  She seriously was awesome (did I say that already?!).  It was also funny because she kept referring to these little neat "experiences" and how she's had some amazing things happen to her.  When she was talking about the Beckoning of Lovely she said she doesn't know why she did it but she just felt like it was something she needed to do. My sister and I kept turning to each other and saying things like "should we tell her she was feeling the Holy Ghost?" or "she would make the best mormon!".  It was kind of funny but true!

 Here's the beautiful ladies (minus Kim) that I was able to be with! 

We also heard from an amazing photographer named Nic Bishop.  He's known for his books like the one seen below.

Here's a picture he showed of himself showing how hard he works to get a shot.  He was very entertaining and it was fun to hear some of his experiences.

We also heard from Jeanette Ingold.  I've read a number ofher books and they're all great.  Very simple and sweet.  At night they had an optional lecture by Ally Condie.  We decided to go and it was pretty good.  I've read Matched and Crossed and am looking forward to Reached.  I think she's talented in her own right and did a good job presenting.

The final speaker we got to hear from was Jack Gantos.  He was also amazing!  He's written a few series like Rotten Ralph and Joey Pigza.  His latest is Dead End in Norvelt and was the Newberry award winner for this year.  It's about a few months out of his teenage years growing up in Norvelt, PA.  The book was hilarious and made me laugh out loud more than once.  His presentation was the same.  He seriously had us all rolling.  It was so neat to hear him share these experiences in real life.  We also found out a few interesting things about him like how he spent a few years in prison for drug smuggling when he was in his 20's.  I guess his book Hole in My Life is all about that.  Anyway, aside from that he was very entertaining and is an incredible author. I highly recommend this book!

It was such a fun two days and I'm so glad I got to be a part of it!  I will definitely never look at a book the same now that I know how much work authors and illustrators put into one book.  Seriously incredible and I'm looking forward to next year!