AASL Conference

I've been at the AASL conference in Charlotte, NC for the past few days. Despite my sister's best guess, it was not the Association of Arby's Sauce Lovers (though I would love to go to that conference). The American Association of School Librarians is a great organization of my peers. I won a travel grant to visit the conference, and it's been worth it! I have been strengthened and encouraged by some wonderful fellow school librarians and authors. I had the honor of meeting Laurie Halse Anderson who is a goddess among YA authors. She is so gracious, witty, and genuine. She gave a speech at the author's dinner that moved many people (including me) to tears. I always think the conferences are so expensive, but after it's all said and done, I am so glad I spent the money (and gave up the time) to come. A few cool people I met (and are now my gurus) include

Joyce Valenza
Buffy Hamilton

Whatever your profession, I hope you get a chance to go and spend time with your peers and learn lots of cool new stuff. If you're not a school librarian, thanks for reading through this probably long and meaningless post. Just please do me a favor and visit a library, thank a librarian, thank a teacher...do something with a library because it's been humbling to be with 3,000 other people who love reading, students, and learning as much as I do.