Princeton Children's Book Festival 2008 Trip Report

Last Saturday, in revenge for my post about my hair, my curls destroyed my hairbrush. Utterly.

It was a crime of passion.

But I soldiered on, dragged the disintegrating bristles through my fuzz, and then trotted off to the Princeton Children's Book Festival.

I love the Princeton Children's Book Festival. You sit outside under a tent with 40+ other writers and talk to people about books. Awesome.

Here's me at my table:


One of the things that I love about this book festival is that the organizers (led by the fabulous Allison Santos) are organized. (You'd think this would be a standard feature of organizers, but not so much.) These librarians and volunteers think of everything.

For example, every author who wants one can have their own personal helper to, you know, help. In addition to helping me schlep candy from the car and tastefully arranging the requisite beware-the-Wild vines, my helper got me food! This gained her instant entry to my list of People Who Are Awesome.

I brought the vines; she brought the sandwiches.

Other people who are awesome were there too, including many, many awesome authors. For the festival, I was seated between the super-nice Linda Bozzo and Sally Cook and behind Dan Gutman. I also had a chance to talk a bit with Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead, both wonderful people and writers. And I got to meet the fabulous Donna Jo Napoli, whose books I adore, and many other writers at a lovely gathering afterward hosted by Margery Cuyler.

Rebecca Stead, Me, and Wendy Mass

Me and Linda Bozzo

And here's something completely unrelated but it made me smile so I wanted to share. I discovered this commercial the other day on Diana Peterfreund's blog, and I 100% agree with it (except for the line about arachnids).

Princeton Children's Book Festival 2008

This Saturday, I will be a participating author at the Princeton Children's Book Festival. I attended last year too and loved it. Allison Santos and the Princeton Public Library staff put on an awesome event.

I will be signing books at a table from noon to 5pm, and I'll be reading from Out of the Wild at 3:10pm in the Green Presentation Tent on the Plaza.

If you're interested in stopping by, here are the details:

September 13 (Saturday) from 12-5pm
Princeton Children's Book Festival 2008
Princeton Public Library
65 Witherspoon St., Princeton, NJ

There's a huge list of participating authors, including Michael Buckley, Margery Cuyler, Wendy Mass, Donna Jo Napoli, Rebecca Stead, and many other super-fabulous people.

And I'm gonna bring a bowl of candy!!

I'm really excited for this event. And not just because it was fun last year. Or because of the candy. I'm also excited because I get to see my alma mater again and feel all warm, fuzzy reminiscing feelings.

I remember people saying to me when I was in college, "This is the best time of your life!" I always thought that was the most depressing thing to say to someone. What? It's all downhill from here? And you are telling me this, why?

I can happily report that it's NOT true. At least, it's not true for me. The best time of my life (so far) is right now.

But I did really love college. And I do think it's a unique time in one's life. It's the very first time that you have the full freedom to choose what you do with your days. It's where who you were really begins to solidify into who you are.

It's also the time when you learn more about your hair.

This is a photo of me in my freshman year dorm room. As you can see, I'm sporting my poodle-do (my haircut in which I most resemble a prize-winning poodle).


All through high school, I had more of a sheep hair-do (picture a giant halo of sheep wool). This was the result of my always wanting to have long hair and my parents always wanting me to have short hair so instead I had hair stuck right in the middle. Middle-length might be fine on people with thin hair or straight hair, but on someone with incredibly thick, fuzzy hair? Yeah, no. Middle-length thick curly hair stands straight up. When I finally did cut my hair poodle-short for college, I turned out to be two inches shorter than I thought I was. Only after college did I let it grow long, ending years and years of hair-trauma.

Um, yeah, I definitely had some hair issues... Guess what I wrote my college admissions essay about -- my hair!! Seriously. It's something of a miracle that I got in.

Anyway, I will be in Princeton this Saturday, reminiscing about college, talking about books, eating candy, and trying to forget the hair-dos of my past. If you're in the area, please stop by the Princeton Public Library and say hi!