Collingswood Book Festival Tomorrow!

Hey gang! There's an incredible book festival tomorrow so I wanted to make sure everyone in the area knew about it. It's the 10th annual Collingswood Book Festival in Collingswood, NJ.

You can click here to go to the festival website and get all the details, but this is all you really need to know: A. S. KING. That's right--tomorrow I will meet the queen in my literary heaven (to Patrick Ness' king). I can't even stand it. I have all three of her books ready to be signed and I have some stickers I'm hoping she'll sign for bookplates for Ask the Passengers, which comes out later this month. She's really the main author I'm interested in seeing--although I'm sure I'll end up buying more stuff when we get there!

It is really just a fun, fun day. Best Girl and I are meeting some colleagues and friends at the Pop Shop for breakfast first (incredible food--they were on Throwdown with Bobby Flay a while back), then we'll stroll the streets and take it all in. There's tons of stuff for kids to do (although at first glance I'm not finding a ton of books that my 10-year-old would want, but that's ok) and it's really such a wonderful little town and such a nice day. And we wrap it up by stopping at Krispy Kreme (the closest one to us!) before making the drive home.

Will I see you there tomorrow??

Enjoy your reading!
Christi

Christi's Adventures: The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee Launch Party!

A while back I discovered that the amazing Tom Angleberger would be having a launch party for The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee, the third book in the Origami Yoda series, on it's release day, right at my favorite (although too-far-away) Barnes & Noble in Princeton, NJ. Yay! It was scheduled for 2pm, so I had to take the day off of work (double yay!), AND I kept Best Girl home from camp (triple yay!), and Laura, the children's librarian at my branch was able to take the day off and come with us (quadruple yay!).

We left my house about 10:30am and stopped at Cracker Barrel for lunch--yum! There's just something about that place, and it's a little more than halfway from home to Princeton so it's a logical place to stop for a bite. We arrived at the B&N about 1pm and there were only a few people seated already, so we purchased our books and got second row seats. I let Best Girl get all three Origami Yoda books and Fake Mustache, which she read earlier this summer and absolutely loved. And I was so excited to see that Tom dedicated Fortune Wookiee to Jay Asher--Jay mentioned at his book signing that he had inadvertantly given Tom the idea for this book, and Tom told us about it at BEA. It was just a really cool author-full-circle kind of thing.

Most awesome book display ever.

Tom came out right on time and got right into it. He was so energetic and engaged the audience right from the start. He had one of those giant pads of paper on an easel and started a game--he would start drawing a character from one of his books and the first person to guess it correctly would get to win the drawing. He also said that not to yell out Origami Yoda right away, because that wouldn't be the first character. So, natural wiseass that I am, as soon as he put marker to paper I yelled out "Origami Yoda!" LOL

He started drawing and people started guessing characters from the Origami Yoda books, but it was Best Girl who realized it was Casper from Fake Mustache--before Tom even drew the fake mustache! He was pretty impressed. He talked about the book a little, and then asked for suggestions on what the kids would do if everyone thought they were adults. Most of the answers were pretty reasonable, coming from children ("I'd drink coffee and watch TV all day!", "I'd drive a Lamborghini!") but one was...not ("I'd get drunk!"). That response was met with gasps from the moms, but Tom simply laughed it off and moved on. AND Best Girl got the drawing!

The drawing of Casper that Best Girl got to take home. Tom is displaying a fake mustache, similar to (although not nearly as awesome) as the one Casper wears in Fake Mustache.

He played this game for a character from each of his books and kept the audience engaged and laughing for a full half hour.

Drawing Dwight from Origami Yoda.

He gave out green paper and showed us how to make Emergency Yodas, then handed out paper to make our own Fortune Wookiees (which, if I'd ever posted a BEA recap, you would realize that I already had, because I'd seen Tom there).

Fortune Wookiee!

He gave out green paper and showed us how to make Emergency Yodas, then handed out paper to make our own Fortune Wookiees (which, if I'd ever posted a BEA recap, you would realize that I already had, because I'd seen Tom there). Then we lined up for pictures and signatures. Tom connected with every single kid there, asking about their favorite Star Wars character, or what they were into if they didn't really like Star Wars. Best Girl made sure to tell him that Fake Mustache was her favorite book. :)

So awesome, right???

After we got our books signed, Laura and I decided to grab copies of Horton Halfpott, the one Tom Angleberger book that Best Girl didn't like. She was so impressed with Tom talking about it that she decided to give it another shot. So we purchased them (unfortunately, only paperback copies were available) and got back in line. Tom was only too happy to sign more books!

We made a connection with the interim person-who-does-author-bookings, and we're super excited because she's really interested in getting more kids and teen authors to come to Princeton, so I will hopefully be making even more trips to Princeton! Their website says there will be an author panel on September 14 featuring DAVID. LEVITHAN. So you know I'll be there!!

Enjoy your reading!
Christi

Reading Road Trip: You are Here: New Jersey!

The 2012 Reading Road Trip is hosted by Like These Books and Icey Books as a way to showcase the fabulous books and authors that come out of the great USA and Canada! Each participating blog is assigned a state (or Canada) and will be hosting a giveaway of a book or books by an author of their state, or a book about their assigned state. Fun, right?

I picked New Jersey and my original post was an entire rant on how MTV's Jersey Shore is not a true representation of our culture, but I'm guessing most of you know that. Did you know, though, that if you're a local, you go to the beach? Tourists (bennys) go to the shore.

Anyway, instead of ranting about what I hate about NJ, let me tell you the number one reason I will probably never leave this state. Yes, we have gorgeous beaches, miles of beautiful boardwalks, and plenty of historic landmarks. But the reason I will probably be tethered to NJ for the rest of my life can be summed up in two words: PORK. ROLL. Also known as Taylor Ham. I cannot even begin to describe its goodness--you can learn more about it at Wikipedia, although I would never compare it to Spam. It's like a hot dog in that it's a combination of stuff that you would probably be better off not thinking about, but it's so, so good. There is nothing like pork roll, egg and cheese on a hard roll to make everything right in the world. And for some inexplicable reason it's only made in the NJ area. Sure, with the Internet you could probably get it shipped to Anywhere, USA, but there is just nothing like eating a pork roll sandwich in a NJ diner.

Is there a regional delicacy in your area that you can't live without (I'm using the word delicacy very loosely here, I know!)?

Onto the giveaway! One lucky winner will win two SIGNED books by NJ authors--a hardcover copy of She's So Dead to Us by Kieran Scott and a paperback copy of Popular by Alissa Grosso! You can click on each title to learn more about the books at their respective Goodreads pages.

Contest is open to US residents age 13 and up. Simply fill out the Rafflecopter to enter. You don't have to be a follower but you can get extra points for doing so! Contest closes on August 1.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'm stop number four on the Reading Road Trip, so be sure to check out all the other stops and follow along!

Click here for the full schedule!!

Enjoy your reading and good luck!

Christi

It's my birthday, and I'm headed to BEA!

Happy birthday to me! I'm headed to BEA for two days of fun times, books, and authors! I have some accomplices coworkers heading into NYC with me--and one is celebrating her birthday on Wednesday, so I'm hoping to get some celebrating in with all the book awesomeness.

If you see me, say hi!!

That's me in the middle, from last year's BEA. Slightly starstruck after being recognized (SHE recognized ME!) by Bettina Restrepo (on the left), who then introduced me (SHE introduced ME!) to Christina Mandelski (on the right).

Enjoy your reading!

Christi

Christi's Adventures: Collingswood Book Festival!

http://www.collingswoodbookfestival.com

Yay for the Collingswood Book Festival! I tell you, this is one of the nicest festivals I've ever been to, and it's a book festival, to boot! Daughter & I attended last year after kind of stumbling upon it somewhere. We had an awesome time and I've been eagerly awaiting the 2011 festival ever since!

This year I had a game plan in place. I'd pre-purchased a lot of the books I wanted to get signed from B&N online. I had a list of which authors we wanted to see, and when. I took one of Daughter's backpacks, instead of killing my shoulder with a tote bag. I made sure we were on the road by 8:30am, to be there by 10am. And my cosmic twin, Kristie, made breakfast reservations at the Pop Shop, an awesome eatery in its own right but made even more famous for being on Bobby Flay's Throwdown!

Daughter, Cosmic Twin Kristie and her girls at the Pop Shop

Kristie rocks, because she booked us in for breakfast instead of lunch. Now, I think I could've ordered a grilled cheese at 10am, but I opted for the Bananas Foster Waffle instead. One of Kristie's girls got chocolate chip pancakes that were, no joke, bigger than her head:

After rolling ourselves out the door, it was time to buy the books I hadn't gotten, and to meet authors! I actually didn't take any pictures of the authors I wanted to meet, but I got a few of my daughter:

Dan Gutman (author of the Weird School books, the Homework Machine, and oodles more), me, and daughter

Daughter & Nancy Viau, author of Samantha Hansen Has Rocks in Her Head

(every book purchase came with a DIY rock collection--a cute touch!)

But never fear! I did meet tons of authors and got books signed! Here's the rundown:

• Where I Want to Be and Tighter by Adele Griffin (2 copies of Tighter--a giveaway coming soon!)
• The Lipstick Laws by Amy Holder--guys, Amy totally recognized me! Like, my face. From Facebook. She was so excited to meet me! *fangirl swoon*
• Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor
• Inconvenient by Margie Gelbwasser (so excited for finally meet her in person!)
• Popular by Alissa Grosso
• Starstruck by Cyn Balog
• The Secret Year by Jennifer Hubbard
• The Butt Book by Artie Bennett (OK, this is a picture book, but it's hilarious and I can't wait to read it with my teens!)

Daughter and I each also got a Charming Book Clip, which has a clip to clip onto your book, a ribbon to mark your place, and a charm to keep it all pretty. This company is relatively new and they're from my area (I missed them at the local book festival last week), and the concept is just really cool!

We also stumbled upon Gourmet Popcorn Creations, a nifty little shop that has, well, gourmet popcorn. But it's like nothing you've ever tasted before. Sure, they have "regular," kettle corn, and caramel, but they also have lime, mint chocolate chip, raspberry, bubble gum...wow. We got some regular, salt & vinegar, and caramel apple to take home. Yum!

The weather wasn't especially gorgeous, but at least the rain held off enough so the event could be held outside as planned. And it was nice enough, not too hot, not too cold--as long as you weren't sitting! 

What could be better than spending a beautiful day with my daughter, my cosmic twin and her girls, and a slew of fantastic authors? Well, as we were heading into town this morning, we saw this sign:

which caused daughter and I to start screaming with delight. There used to be a KK not that far from us at home, but they closed down several years ago and we have yet to find another store during any of our many travels. So of course we arranged to meet Kristie and her girls before we headed home!

So that was our fantastic day at the Collingswood Book Festival! I'm already excited for next year's--the 10th! I think it's generally held on the 1st Saturday of October if you'd like to plan to join us next year!

Enjoy your reading!

Christi

Christi's Adventures: BEA 2011 recap (where I get fangirly, swoony, and stalker-ish--all in one day!)

Have you entered my Splash Into Summer Giveaway Hop yet? 

Click here!

I apologize in advance for the length of this post. 

It was an exciting day and I want to share it all!

So Tuesday my colleague (and friend) Courtney and I headed into NYC for our first-ever BEA. Before we even boarded the 6:30am bus we were kicking ourselves for deciding to only do one day. I have to tell you, we got a lot done and we saw a lot of awesomeness, but I can't help reading other blogs and tweets and listing what we missed. So yes, BEA was completely incredible, but it would have been mind-blowing if we'd done TWO days (like we plan to next year). I actually thought about doing a highlight of all the stuff we MISSED,  but that seems kind of pessimistic, so here are some highlights of what we actually accomplished!

Best. Thing. Ever. I was going to do a countdown to my actual favorite part of the day, but I just can't wait to tell you. I was determined to meet Christine Mandelski, author of The Sweetest Thing, because I've been dying to read her book and my library doesn't own it yet. So I was actually first in line for her table signing. A woman walked past me and said excuse me, or apologized, or something. I happened to look at her, and then I looked at her name tag...and said "Bettina?" It was Bettina Restrepo, author of Illegal! But wait, it gets better! She looks at me, looks at my name tag, and screams (I'm not kidding) "Christi the Teen Librarian!" And then gave me a huge hug. You guys, she totes recognized me. She. Knew. Who. I. Was. And even more mind-blowing--she was excited to see me! She introduced me to Christine Mandelski and Kiki Hamilton (fellow 2k11 classmates), she tweeted that she met me, she gave Courtney and I some swag, we took photos, and then I totally let her sneak in the line with me. Sorry, peeps behind me. And then I got to "meet" Christine again, and she signed her book for me. And Bettina offered to Skype with my teens at the library! I tell you, I could have gone home after that meeting, and been the happiest librarian there.

Bettina Restrepo, me, and Christine Mandelski

(OMG!)

More highlights:


Seeing Julianne Moore and Ice-T in person (separately!). We didn't get to BEA nearly early enough to get tickets for any authors, but just seeing some famous people was a treat enough for me!

I could not have asked for a better facial expression!

Randomly discovering that Florence Henderson was doing a photo op and handing out ARCs of her upcoming biography, Life is Not a Stage. I only met her for a second but she was so sweet and petite! I felt like Ginormica next to her.

Mrs. Brady & me!!

While waiting in line for Florence Henderson, I spotted...David. Levithan. I was actually so distracted that Mrs. Henderson's people had to remind me it was my turn. I was actually walking right behind David Levithan for several moments. I actually got a little stalker creepy:

Great literature comes out of that head.

For a brief moment I considered stalking following him for the rest of the day, but Courtney talked me out of it. I was way too shy to actually approach him, which was stupid on my part, because he seems like a completely approachable person. I saw him later at the Scholastic booth, and had totally convinced myself I was going to say hi and tell him I love his stuff, but he was otherwise engaged talking to another couple.

Meeting Mike Holmes (from HGTV's Holmes on Homes, and he also wrote a book, duh.). I waited in line for AN HOUR to meet him. Fortunately there were some really nice people in front of and behind me, so that helped make the wait bearable. Mike was really nice, and I think I was actually one of the younger people in line to meet him. Which made me feel good because I usually feel old. Anyway.

'

When I told Mike my name he said, "Christi makes great cookies." To which I said, "Umm, actually, I do!" He then went on to tell me about a cookie company in Canada that uses "Christi makes great cookies" as their tagline. To which I said, "Umm, I make great cookies." Little star struck, I was. (Later research leads me to discover that Nabisco is known as Christie in Canada, and there's an old commercial where a little girl says "Mr. Christie, you make good cookies!" So, there you go.)

I met lots of great authors and got lots of great books. What I'm going to do with them, I have no idea (theoretically I got a lot for summer reading giveaways, if I can part with them!).

These are all the adult books (and a few cookbooks) I got:

These are the young adult books and ARCs I got (and yes, one of these is going to be in the Splash Into Summer Giveaway package--did you enter yet?)

And in reality, I can't even remember all the great authors we met and had books signed by (and I'm feeling too lazy right now to look them up.) I definitely remember meeting and getting books signed by:


David Lubar (he signed Attack of the Vampire Weenies for my daughter), 
Jonathan Maberry (who had ARCs of his adult zombie novel, Dead of Night, due out in November), 
Nancy Holder (who graciously gave me 2 copies of Crusade--one for me and one for my teens!), 
Rita Williams-Garcia (One Crazy Summer),
AC Crispin (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom),
Daniel Stefansky (the 14-year-old author of How to Talk to an Autistic Kid)
And I know there are more but I'm blanking right now.


Completely random, but still fun:

I snapped this picture for my daughter. It's an inflatable marketing Diary of a Wimpy Kid 6. Pretty cool, I thought!

I gotta say, the worst part of the day was the crush I got caught in at the Penguin booth. It was horrible--there were people pushing and shoving, a shelf fell, and the poor rep was trying to fix it and no one would let her! I was so scared that the whole day would be like that. Thankfully, that was the only negative thing we experienced. 


And we even made it back home--via public transportation!--with minimal discomfort and injury. :)


All in all, it was a GREAT day!! I know I have no right to be upset about what I've missed, especially because it was the first BEA for both Courtney and myself, and we agreed going in that we'd treat this as a learning experience. So yes, we learned, and yes, we'll be that much more prepared for next year!


Enjoy your reading!
Christi

BEA first-timer--HELP!

I'm totes excited that I'll be attending BEA this year. I'm only going for one day (Tuesday), although I'm already regretting not signing up for the whole thing. But, it is what it is. I corrupted asked my protege colleague to come with, and Kristie, my cosmic twin, will also be there! I have to pay my own way and use personal time, but who cares? I'M GOING TO BEA!!!

Which means I have tons of questions for you, my fellow bloggers. I don't know if it makes a difference, but I'll be attending as a librarian, not a blogger. Please share your wisdom with me!

I've heard that I should bring an empty suitcase to carry all the loot I'm going to get. True? Someone else mentioned that I can store said suitcase for $3, $6, but this is an open-floor thing, not the coat check? Has anyone ever done this?

I have the opportunity to get free transportation to the Javits Center, which is a bonus, as I have no clue how to get to/park at the Javits Center. However, this is a bus-type situation, which means that I'm at the mercy of when the driver wants to pick us up and leave. Should I bite the bullet and drive, so that I can come and go as I please? I'm about an hour and a half away from  NYC. If you think I should drive, parking tips would be appreciated (driving directions would be even better LOL)

Are the ticketed autographs something I should obsess over? The website says they'll be distributed starting at 7am. If I don't plan on getting there until, like, 8:30, will there even be any left?

How, exactly, do the giveaways and autographs work? In-booth, autographing area, Insight Stage...Do I just walk around and pick stuff up?

We didn't sign up for the breakfast--I figured that being BEA newbies we would just walk around dumbfounded explore for the day. Mistake?

What should I wear? I've heard it's business casual--which always confuses me. I was thinking maybe dressy-ish capris and a nice blouse, but shoes are a problem. Help?

What should I bring? Suitcase maybe. Will I look like a complete stalker fangirl with my camera?
What else do I need to know? I know The Story Siren and others have posted about BEA (believe me, I've already read them), but any personal advice you want to share is welcome!
Oh, and is anyone going to be there on Tuesday? Would love to meet some fellow bloggers!

Thanks for your help and advice!!

Enjoy your reading!
Christi