Saturday, January 29, 2011

In My Mailbox + Montgomery County Teen Book Fest

So, I went to Houston last weekend for the Montgomery County Teen Book Fest which was amazing. The whole weekend, actually, rocked. I got to see my best friend, hang out with bloggers at the fest, and met up on Sunday with Sophie Jordan and Mary Lindsey for coffee and to chit chat for a few hours before driving back to Dallas. Some of the books I got this week are from the fest, since there were 5 great authors there. I'll go into more detail about that soon, but first, here's the rest of my books for the week:


For Review:
The Midnight Tunnel: A Suzanna Snow Mystery by Angie Frazier
Stupid Fast by Geoff Herbach
Boyfriends with Girlfriends by Alex Sanchez
Okay For Now by Gary D. Schmidt
The Darlings are Forever by Melissa Kantor
The End Time (The Books of Umber) by P. W. Catanese
I Am J by Cris Beam
(Huge thanks to Angie Frazier + Scholstic, Geoff Herbach + Sourcebooks Fire, Alex Sanchez + Simon & Schuster, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Disney-Hyperion, Simon & Schuster, and Cris Beam + Little, Brown)


Won from Heidi Ayarbe:
Stuck in Neutral by Terry Trueman

Purchased:
Warped by Maurissa Guibord

Bought at Book Fest (All Signed):
Nothing but the Truth (And a Few White Lies) by Justina Chen Headley
Fallen 2 by Thomas Sniegoski
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
A Summer to Die by Lois Lowry
Garthering Blue by Lois Lowry
The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Silent Boy by Lois Lowry

Like I said before, the book fest was incredibly awesome. The authors on the docket were Jeff Stone, Lois Lowry, Anna Godberson, Thomas Sniegoski, and Justina Chen Headley. There was a Q&A session with all 5 authors, and then 2 breakout sessions. I went to Lois Lowry and Justina Chen Headley, and both had fantastic presentations. Lois talked about her life and her books, and it honestly was fascinating. Justina talked about growing up, what got her into writing and her inspiration, and it really was just an inspiring talk even for the audience.

Jeff and Lois were on one side of the questioner, Anna, Thomas and Justina (who I cut off in this picture) were on the other.


Here Lois is answering one of the questions.

Anna's turn to answer!

After the break out session, all the authors did book signings. I brought several books from home, and bought others I didn't have at the fest.

Here I am with Anna.

Thomas, and yes, my awesome orange Chucks got all 5 author's signatures.

Justina Chen Headley, who has now signed her very first shoe.

And here is the blogger group waiting for the opening talk and Q&A.

12 comments:

  1. What cook chucks you have! Great idea.

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  2. Looks like you had a lot of fun! Great books this week too! :)

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  3. I wish we had more time to chat the event was so fun. Stupid Fast by Geoff Herbach is on my to read list.

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  4. Lucky--I love Lois Lowry and Justina Headly! So cool.

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  5. Very cool! Thanks for sharing your adventures and pictures!

    I took one of my 5th graders to Lois Lowry's book signing last year. It was the first signing he had been to, and what a perfect one it was! She was great with the kids (and of course I enjoyed and learned a lot, too!)

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  6. Wow, great mailbox! I love Lois Lowry, The Giver and Gathering Blue completely blew my mind as a kid. I hope you enjoy all of your books!

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  7. Wow that's awesome!

    My IMM goes up tomorrow, be sure to stop by!

    a GREAT read

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  8. what a mailbox. cool.
    We rarely have any event like you wrote above.

    I only recognize some books. Never seen the other book before

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  9. Great books - Lois Lowry is a fantastic author.

    Looks like you had fun at your event too!

    Mostly Reading YA

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  10. All of those signed books, awesome! Glad you had a blast!

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  11. Ha! My 9-year-old daughter just found the pic of Stupid Fast (among other titles) atop that happy dog. I don't know why that image makes me so happy (it really does!).
    Geoff

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