Sunday Salon #4--Provo Library's Children's Book Festival

For those that are unfamiliar with what "Sunday Salon" is all about, here is their blurb: "Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon, an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities and fall into a good book." While I usually would talk about my reading, I wanted to update a little on the awesome Children's Book Festival that took place yesterday at the Provo City Library. By the way, can I just say how awesome that library is? It used to be nothing more than this broken down old building, that while historical, was blocked off and condemned looking. Today, it is this beautiful old building, distiguished and dedicated to all things book related. (How can you not love a building that does that?) My friend Doc took some time off from studying for the boards to come with me, and after a little drama from the fire alarm being pulled by a "small child," we went in to enjoy.

Provo City Library Before & After

Because I only had a couple of Shannon Hale's novels to bring to the festival, I stopped off to buy some books by other authors present. I picked up two copies of Brandon Sanderson's first book in his Mistborn series, Mistborn. (See Mistborn: The Final Empire for more information.) One of my AP Literature students, who is an amazingly well-read student has been telling me how much she LOVES his novels, so I had to pick those up. I also grabbed Aprilynne Pike's brand new novel, Wings. (See Wings (Aprilynne Pike (Hardback)) for more information.) I finished off with Brandon Mull's first in a much-loves series by my students, Fablehaven. (See Fablehaven for more information.) I'm excited to read each of these great novels!

Besides running around to visit with my awesome students that were standing in lines and mulling around, I had the chance to stop in and see Shannon Hale (See Austenland: A Novel for more information on one of Hale's great novels), Brandon Mull, Brandon Sanderson, and Aprilynne Pike. I wish now that I'd done my homework a bit more and visited with a few more of the other authors and illustrators there. Let's be honest, they each add to our love of all things reading, and delight us with the stories they create through words and pictures.

I can't include the pictures of my wonderful students, as cute as they all were, but I wanted to include a few of the pics I had taken with several authors.

Shannon Hale signed my book, "Mr. Darcy thinks you're hot!" So funny. Wouldn't that be awesome? :)

Brandon Mull actually signed this poster and encouraged me to try his fantasy series with my students. I was actually in line with two of them at the time (they took the picture), and he was great with them. I love it when authors break through to young readers!

Isn't Aprilynne Pike pretty! I had to rip this book out of my friend's hands so that Aprilynne could sign it. My friend finished it about 20 minutes later and said, "It's really good!" Can't wait to get started on it.

Sorry to be in so many pictures!!! I was just thrilled to meet so many great local authors. Why no picture with Brandon Sanderson? I forgot! I went with my AP student that loves him, took her picture, and then forgot to get one taken when I had my book signed! Silly me. :) I also wish I would have had a chance to get a picture taken with Natasha, from Maw Books Blog. It's funny that I so readily knew who she was from the pictures and vlogs she's posted. We didn't get a chance to visit for long, but I was so glad to meet her. There were other local book bloggers there, but as one of them later joked, we needed little bubbles above our head that said something like, "I blog" or "I twitter." So true! I also met a couple of soon to be published authors, and hopefully I'll be able to post about them down the line! We struck up a conversation in Brandon Sanderson's line, and our time just flew. What can I say, the festival was just a great all-round time. I met many wonderful people and added to my TBR in a staggering way. What more could you want for a Saturday afternoon!