I Spy With My Little Eye . . . Treasures at the 2017 ALA Midwinter Conference

Today is a nicely visual little post!  We’re going to take a gander at what I saw when I attended the ALA Midwinter Conference this past weekend.  The large publishers can only highlight a small selection from their list.  The little publishers can highlight everything coming out in a given season.  Bearing that in mind, I’m going to run through the images of the books I saw that for one reason or another caught my eye.  With sparse commentary on the side . . .

Well, lookie there!  Could that be my own pretty little anthology sitting on a shelf, just as gorgeous as you please?  Yes it is!  A collection of some of the funniest women writing for kids today too.  I was pleased as punch to see it on display.  Hooray!

Each one of these books is a bilingual Spanish/English storytime presenter’s dream come true.  And the art, thankfully, matches the text.

Cute debut.

Oh, and this next image is from the book What Does Baby Want by Tupera Tupera.  Baby wants . . .

Did NOT see that one coming.

Jerry Pinkney’s bringing the classic fairytale home with an anti-nationalist message.

The time has never been better for Russian space cats.

They described this one as “The Moth with talking dogs”.  Sold!

Pak is doing humor for the first time, and he’s doing a dang good job with it.

In case anyone ever asks you, Frank Viva redesigned the Tundra logo.

I have bad news, guys.  You’re going to have to find a way to sneak in just one more circle there.

Krazy Kat influence?  The world may never know.

I loved this even before I saw that it was Rowboat Watkins.  That guy’s a hoot.

A day in the life of seven families.  The trick is that when you get to the end you can see that they were real people all along.

You can buy her if you want to.

Of all the books I saw, this was undoubtedly the one that touched me the most.  Prepare to be blown away.  It’s so beautiful you should probably be prepared to look at the art under the book jacket:

Extra points to Child’s Play for publishing books about the Romany experience.

I already mentioned on this blog that this book is remarkable because it casually shows that the librarian has a husband.  Also, I love the fact that the Toad Campaign is finding mentions in all the Tinyville Town books, so far.

On a different note, I was lucky to sit near the front from the 2017 YMA announcements.

Here’ s a slide for my committee, which I chaired.  Called the May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award, it is awarded to a speaker that will say something significant about the state of children’s literature today.  Our selection?  Naomi Shihab Nye.

A sketch by Gareth Hinds of the speakers of the day.

Earlier in the conference, the traditional running of the bulls.

By the way, did I fail to mention that there was a march going on during ALA.  Bars were handing out free tats . . .

And crowds were crowded.

Finally, to round us all off,  the best bag of the conference?  Was there ever any question?

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