Great Speeches and Great Chats — NCTE, Part 4

You’ve heard about my Friday sessions (Passion-Driven Research and Into the Poem), my Friday night, and my Saturday morning session on Revved for Research. I just wanted to share a few favorite moments here from the rest of Saturday:

• Marilyn Singer’s exuberant acceptance speech for the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children, including singing “Baby Face” 
• Singing Happy Birthday to Marilyn’s husband, Steve, at the end of Marilyn’s talk
• Candy Fleming’s Orbis Pictus acceptance talk, where she shared moments of doubt (“Who cares about Russian history?”) and triumph in the writing of The Family Romanov

Candy’s speech can be found here

, starting at about 29:00.

• Ann Martin’s touching acceptance speech sharing some of her writing process for Rain Reign, which won the Charlotte Huck Award. Ann’s speech can be found here, starting at about 52:00. (Thanks, Jane Heitman Healy, for pointing me to that YouTube video!)
• Chatting in the exhibit hall with an educator who’s taking big job risks by speaking out against some reading policies in her district
• Sitting with Margaret Simon and tons of Poetry Friday friends at the Children’s Book Luncheon (where the above speeches happened)
• Reading a really touching letter from a young student to her teacher
• Running into author/illustrator Ruth McNally Barshaw (whom I don’t know well) and her husband, Charlie — Ruth’s warmth just enveloped me!
• Reading a poem that Mary Lee Hahn, Janet Wong, and I collaborated on at the CLA (Children’s Literature Assembly) 40th Anniversary reception.

Lerner invited me to an author dinner Saturday night, and it truly was a dinner for their authors–no educators, no bloggers, just some Lerner VIPS and about 8 Lerner authors. It was lovely to hear what everyone’s doing and talk about research, school visits, personal lives, and, of course, our love of books–the focus that brings us all together! Sigh, I felt weird taking pictures in the lovely restaurant, but I did grab a sneak shot of my key lime pie dessert, which did NOT look like pie but tasted like heaven.

I wish I had more pictures of all of the above to share, but I’ve got just these random shots. Well, I have great memories, at least…

Marilyn Singer

Maurna Rome and me

Celebrating CLA!

Trish Bandre and Amy McClure share CLA’s history and mission.

CLA 40th Anniversary Reception

Key Lime “Pie” at Mission American Kitchen & Bar–odd-looking but wow-delicious!

Christmas Trees in IDS