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Sunday, January 29, 2012

ALA Midwinter 2012 Recap

ALA Midwinter, hosted this year in Dallas, Texas, is always a quieter, tamer conference than ALA Annual, held in the summer. I had a great time - I did my graduate work at UT Austin, so returning to Texas was a great opportunity for me to reconnect with a lot of my friends and former colleagues in Texas. I've already talked about my reactions to the Newbery, Caldecott and Printz wins.

I took fairly detailed notes on the whole trip - but rather than giving a blow-by-blow account, I decided to try to boil things down to the bare essence. 


I had a Texas breakfast!

Saw a bluegrass band, playing for the opening of the Exhibit Hall.


Here's a quick overview of books that caught my attention last weekend. Unless otherwise noted, they are available now.

PICTURE BOOK BIOGRAPHIES:
I liked the looks of these.



Charles Dickens: Scenes from an Extraordinary Life - Mick Manning, Brita Granstrom
Levi Strauss Gets a Bright Idea - Tony Johnston, Stacy Innerst
Martin de Porres: The Rose in the Desert - Gary D. Schmidt, David Diaz (due out in June 2012)
First Girl Scout: The Life of Juliette Gordon Low - Ginger Wadsworth  (due out in February 2012)

MORE NON-FICTION:



Beetle Book - Steve Jenkins (due out in April 2012)
Gifts from the Gods - Lise Lunge-Larsen, Gareth Hinds
Don't Sit On the Baby!: The Ultimate Guide to Sane, Skilled, and Safe Babysitting - Hally Bondy (due out in June 2012)
Knitted Dinosaurs: Tina Barrett

INTERESTING PICTURE BOOKS:


Over and Under the Snow - Kate Messner
Extra Yarn - Mac Barnett, Jon Klassen
The Woods - Paul Hoppe
And Then It's Spring - Julie Fogliano, Erin Stead (due out in February 2012)
Otter and Odder - James Howe, Chris Raschka (due out in October 2012)
Virginia Wolf - Kyo Maclear, Isabelle Arsenault (due out in March 2012)


NEW MOUSE SERIES FROM KEVIN HENKES:
It looks to be at a beginning reader level. It's due out in February. The first one is called Penny and Her Song.



NEW FANCY NANCY SPIN-OFF:
It's a chapter book!


Nancy Clancy, Super Sleuth - Jane O'Connor, Robin Preiss Glasser (due out in April 2012)

FLANAGAN FRENZY:


This was to promote a summer reading program tie-in for the Ranger's Apprentice series.


The best part of this conference was, of course, all the wonderful people I met. As always, I feel refreshed, rejuvenated and recharged after the conference - ready to tackle whatever comes next.



Next week, I'll post pics of all the swag I picked up!

8 comments:

  1. Terrific summary of the conference, Madigan. Looks like quite a crop of new books coming out this year. Thanks for sharing your observations. I'll look for The Beetle Book in April. My beetle book is written from a slightly different angle: fiction story with non-fiction factoids.

    I like your blog, by the way. It's a good resource to come back to---lots of good content. No wonder you have so many followers. If you wish, feel free to visit my blog at: http://billkirkwrites.blogspot.com .

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  2. I am so buying that Nancy Clancy book for my library. Aaah the girls are going to die when they see that! Thank you for putting it on my radar!

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  3. There are waffles shaped like Texas? Wicked!

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  4. @ Bill - Wow, thanks!

    @Small - I just about died when I saw it, too! I didn't get a peek inside - I'm hoping it's an early chapter book, with some color illustrations. I know it's 128 pages.

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  5. @K - That waffle was delicious, by the way.

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  6. It looks like you really made the most of your Midwinter experience! I missed out on the bluegrass band because I was too busy waiting in line for the exhibits to open :-)

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  7. None of these awesome bookish things happen where I live, Booooo! Your waffle looked tasty, glad you had fun =D

    Tristan @ Reads With Wreckless Abandon

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  8. @Tristan - You're in Canada, right? Look around - Toronto and Quebec both have some great literary festivals.

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