Maybe at some point, I will actually be able to get a Saturday Celebrate Post up on a Saturday. However, this one is going up a day late. Celebrate This Week is hosted by Ruth Ayres and is a great community of writers. Why don't you join in and link up with #celebratelu
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This past week I had a lot to celebrate. I kicked off my week with the 2014 ALA Youth Media Awards held in Philadelphia, PA on Monday, January 27, 2014.
After early morning pictures, committees enter the room where the announcements will be made. I discovered that the Schneider Family Book Award Jury's seats were right between the Newbery Committee and the Caldecott Committee.
Here is John Schumacher with fellow committee member Amy Koester.
After the initial welcome and the Alex Awards, the Schneider Family Book Awards were announced. Yes, I was definitely celebrating this. After months of reading and deliberations, we had made our decisions.
And these were the books that my fellow jury members and I were celebrating....
Though I don't have a lot of great pictures from the exhibit hall, here I am with Schneider Book Award Jury members Caroline Ward and Peg Glisson holding A Splash of Red with all it's beautiful bling.
Over at the Simon and Schuster booth, several other award winning books also looked very shiny with new medals.
When I arrived home from Philadelphia, I was thrilled to find my signed copy of Locomotive, winner of the 2014 Caldecott Medal and a Sibert Honor recipient.
Mr. Schu made this great image of all of the 2014 Newbery Winners. I loved these choices. It was the first time that I had read every one of them prior to the announcements.
I, also, celebrated finding my signed copy of Flora & Ulysses, which won the 2014 Newbery Award.
When I got back to Pasadena, it seemed that my book adventures were not over. Thank you to Nicole White, Penguin Publishers, I was invited to a dinner with Sally Green, author of Half Bad, which comes out in March. It was a lovely evening with great food and even better conversations with several booksellers and Ms. Green.
This weekend, I am trying to hold onto the wonder of the past week while returning to my regular routine.
