ALA 2010 Part 2: The Scholastic Literary Brunch

Sunday morning at ALA, I attended the Scholastic Literary Brunch, a lovely event where a handful of authors read from their books on the upcoming list. I was especially excited to go because Cindy Lord was reading from TOUCH BLUE, her second novel with Scholastic, about an island community in Maine that takes in foster children to try and save their school.  Like RULES, it’s full of real kids that you fall in love with — equal parts humor and heart and truth. It’s just wonderful, and Cindy is a friend, so we couldn’t wait to hear her read.

Cindy shared her story about reading at the brunch here on her blog; apparently she was a little thrown off because there was nowhere to set her book while she read, but the audience never would have known that.  She was wonderful.

Also on the lineup were Matthew Kirby, reading from his upcoming title, THE CLOCKWORK THREE, Erin Bow reading from her debut novel PLAIN KATE, Deb Wiles reading from COUNTDOWN, which I’m halfway through and loving, and Lucy Christopher reading from STOLEN.  All three did a fantastic job reading, and I’m excited to read these, too!  Here’s an only-slightly-blurry photo of Lucy…

I was so enthralled by the readings that I kept forgetting to take photos, so I missed Deb, Erin, and Matthew.  I totally meant to snap a photo of Blue Balliett reading from her latest mystery, but I was too busy watching my daughter bounce up and down in her chair with excitement as she listened to the description of THE DANGER BOX.  I did manage to get a picture after her reading, though.

As if all that weren’t enough, there were cupcakes, too. Cupcakes!!

They’re in celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Scholastic imprint Chicken House and were as delicious as they were pretty. 

Even though this was just a three-day trip, it felt much longer because the days were so exciting and busy. Sunday night was the Newbery-Caldecott banquet, which was absolutely magical.  I’ll share some photos in another post later on!