#ALA11 Wrap-up (+Giveaway)

I've been home from ALA for a week now and I am still smiling. I really can't tell you how much fun I had. I hope the pictures below show just how much of a good time we had with authors, publishers, and friends. I must say, I was very happy with the turnout from Texas! I've been blabbing and begging for about 9 months wishing and hoping Texas bloggers would show up - they did! You all better make plans to be in Austin for Austin Teen Book Fest in October and then ALA Midwinter in Dallas in January! *TX rulez*

Stephanie and I drove down to Houston on Wednesday to pick up Cari and Michelle and attended the Ally Carter's signing at Blue Willow. We snapped a cute picture while Ally was signing. 

Kristen, Sarah, Stephanie, Me, Christin, Joy Preble, Michelle

The next morning we packed up and hit the road for NoLA! The rain didn't slow us down and thankfully, the window paint stayed on the car! We painted our Twitter handle on the windows in case anyone wondered cared who we were. We had a lot of folks stare at us! We stopped off at the New Orleans welcome center and took some pictures. 

ALA#11 Roadtrip

We hit New Orleans, made Michelle push the cart full of bags and food up to our room then focused on our mission for a Po Boy! Here are some shots of our day out and about. We took the street car and toured the Jackson Square area. And of course, we had our share of beignets. 

New Orleans

While I loved getting all of the rad books and spending time with people who I love and admire, ALA was about my big presentation on Sunday. I stayed up late finishing up tiny details and many times during the day I had little freak out moments. My roommates were supportive and kept me from crying myself to sleep every night. I am happy to report that everything went fine and it was standing room only! I won't go into incredible detail but my partner and I talked about the fundamentals of educational television and how you can apply that to your storytime. Turn out, those folks at PBS an Nick Jr. know what they're doing. The hour and half flew by and we had a lot of great feedback. I hope to present at TLA in Houston next year. #fingerscrossed

The week was full of parties and get togethers. Special thanks to Katherine Tegan for the Divergent dinner with Veronica Roth. What fun and probably (hands down) the best meal I had in NoLA! Also, Egmont, Candlewick, and Tor for letting me bring my crew and providing awesome skyline views, food, and drinks. Lastly, Parajunkee and YA Highway for gathering up all of the bloggers and providing an opportunity to meet in person. Great to meet you all! 

The trip ended with an hour long packing job - I still can't believe we fit everything in the #ALA bus! We met up with Jess and Lety at the Texas Welcome Center for some fun pics. This was such a cute place and we had fun chillin' with the raccoons. So cute!

Props to the American Library Association for a totally smooth and stress free convention. I must say that I didn't hear of any caddiness and craziness that I might have heard with another book convention earlier this year. Also, the bus drivers were awesome and even dropped us off in places not on the route. ;)

All in all, I had a brilliant time! I think my awesome roommates have something to do with it. We laughed about anything and everything. I even learned some awesome curse words in Spanish that I might put to some good use.

As promised, a giveaway! Macmillan and Simon & Schuster were kind enough to offer up some lovely things for all you that were #ALAleftbehind. Here is what I have:

ARC of STICK by Andrew Smith

Clockwork Prince sampler & size large tee

Swag & bookplates

*giveaway closed*