National Book Festival

Have you ever attended the National Book Festival in Washington D.C.?  Each year the festival features authors, poets, and illustrators who meet on the grounds of the National Mall.  Those who attend can meet their favorite authors, listen to them speak, and get books signed.

This year the festival will be held on September 22-23.  I cannot wait!

I went to the NBF last year for the very first time.  I met my favorite authors and got many of my read aloud books signed.  It was fabulous!  Would you like to join us this year?

Here are some highlights in photographs...

Jane O'Connor, creator of Fancy Nancy, signed our copies of Stellar Stargazer.

We Love Clifford!  This is a photo of my good friend, Gail, and Clifford.  Gail took over my first grade classroom when I became a reading specialist.  She also adopted my classroom Clifford theme.  I hope to share pictures of her amazing classroom in an upcoming post.

Love, love, love, Tomie dePaola!  He signed each of his books in a coordinating Sharpie color.  We waited in line for hours to meet him and made some new teacher friends along the way. So worth it!

We waited and waited and waited so that I could meet Toni Morrison and get an autographed copy of A Mercy.  Toni was a trooper...there were fourteen super long lines of fans waiting for autographs.  Her two-hour signing turned into an all day event.  Can you say hand-cramp?

Author-illustrator, Harry Bliss, signed our copies of Bailey.  Harry personalized my book with a message for my dog, Bailey. (That's Gail hammin' it up in the photo.) 

Mrs. Frizzle offered us a ride on the Magic School Bus.

By the end of the day our make-up had melted off, the bottom of Gail's sneaker had fallen off, and we were officially pooped!  But we had met so many of our favorite authors and took home a ton of signed, hard-back copies of great children's books.  Score!