ALA + Nola

New Orleans!

My first introduction to the fabulous city rich with all sorts of mixes.

The Creole people are a combo of Spanish, French and African American– creating divine cuisine (definitely not easy on the hips!). Sean and I indulged in a mix of delicious rich fried foods and fine dining, including beignets, cafe au lait, creamy pralines, seafood, oysters and bananas flambe.

We attempted a mix of ALA (convention floor walking, signings & cocktail parties) with touring the city. We saw some of the Katrina ravaged neighborhoods (a mix of sadness and, to my surprise, hope– in the rebuilding efforts), and funky areas like the French Quarter and the Merigny. Way too much for just 4 days!

These pictures show Sean and I together with colleagues in the picture book world from all over; An incredible gumbo of artists and writers converged at the end of June in The Big Easy.

(Top - bottom: random art in the French Quarter, Sean signing at S&S, Sean changing the guard to Brian Floca, Sean & Selina with Yugi Morales & Maya Soetoro-Ng, Selina with Rebecca Sherman & Grace Lin, beignets, Sean with Wilder recipient Tomie dePaola, Sean with Caldecott honor recipient David Ezra Stein & family, Selina with Newbery honor recipient Jennifer L. Holm.)

Chapter Books; a whole new world!

Last week, at Books of Wonder, I was on a panel with a bunch of cool folks who write chapter books.  Until last week, I knew next to nothing about chapter books.  That evening I discovered, much to my delight, it's quite a different beast!  Like an older, more sophisticated, distant relative to children's books.  Still, like picture books, chapter books tell stories for a young audience.  I was completely captivated as my colleagues revealed tales about their characters and how they came to be.  I sat with Jackie Longstead (of the Sister's 8 series), Bruce Hale (his latest, From Russia with Lunch) and Charise Mericle Harper (Just Grace books fame).  The second coolest part of the evening for me, next to hearing all of their back-stories, was discovering that Charise Mericle Harper not only writes and illustrates books (like me!), lives in the NY area w/ her 2 kids (like me!), but is from Vancouver, B.C., (like me!), AND went to Prince of Wales high school (like me!! - only we missed each other by a year).  What are the odds of that?  I discovered I absolutely adore Charise's work.  Her main character, Grace, has the super power of empathy!  How cool is that?  I love the fact that even though I was probably misplaced on the panel to begin with (ie/ Greetings from the 50 States is not exactly a chapter book!), it was totally worth the effort to make that random connection and to learn just a bit more about the world of chapter books!  Rebecca Sherman (my agent), my daughter Ginger and I are featured above at the Cupcake Cafe in Books of Wonder.