We Survived Vegas!

Henny and I survived Las Vegas!
The American Library Association (ALA) Conference was totally worth putting up with dashing between 106+ degree (41 c) outdoor heat, and the interiors that have to be air conditioned so people don't die. What a trip!

That said, the Henny signing went extremely well:

Game Face

The Signing

Henny's line began forming at the Simon and Schuster booth about 15-20 min before start-time.
I donned my chicken hat, and away we went--or, I should say, away the Hennys went.
 The entire case of books was gone within the half-hour time slot. 

 Yay! All those Henny's in the hands of the best book people in the world-- librarians!

Henny wore her ALA Booklist star proudly the whole weekend (even though she was in the shadow (physically speaking, of course ;)) of the Caldecott-winning "Locomotive."

Best of all, I got to meet/hang out with some AMAZING picture book people:

--with fellow PNWer Nikki McClure at her signing for "May the Stars Drip Down"

--with Caldecott winner ("Locomotive") Brian Floca!! What a super nice guy! 

with the delightful Caldecott honoree ("Flora and the Flamingo") Molly Idle

with the talented Llama's mama Anna Dewdney (holding her new gnu book)! 

YES! That IS Jon Klassen!!--also in the super-nice-guy category!

with the hilarious and ALSO super-nice-guy Dan Santat holding his book, "Beekle"

My adoration for Judy Schachner (Skippyjon Jones) is obvious. What a gracious, sweet person! 

--with writer/librarian/new-favorite-person Carter Higgins--and the creator of NINJA, Arree Chung (yet another in the super-nice-guy category)!

I got to meet and chat with THE Doris Kearns Goodwin at a beautiful S and S dessert reception. 

(I was so proud of my Simon and Schuster red author beads. I guess Doris decided not to wear hers. 

I guess that's cuz maybe everyone KNOWS who she is ;) ). 

Here's Henny looking delicious among the desserts: deftly and briefly placed for a  photo-op 

by Lori Kilkelly (see below)

and, last but not least, my ALA roomie and PB debut sister-soul-mate, Toni Yuly. 

Here she is holding her acclaimed debut picture book, EARLY BIRD, flanked by her devoted lit agents, Paul Rodeen and Lori Kilkelly. I had so much fun with these guys! 

There were so many other amazing, kind, and talented people I met, 

not to mention ALL those awesome librarians! 

In the end, it IS all about the BOOKS!

Here's a stack of some of what I hauled back. SO much talent and fun in one pile! 

And one last highlight-- I can now kick going to Las Vegas off my bucket list.

Thanks for stopping by, everyone!

"You Gotta Love the Weird"

I'm so pleased to report that HENNY just got a shout-out from the New York Public Library's 

Betsy Bird on her School Library Journal blog, A Fuse #8 Production!

Henny is clapping her little hands in delight!

Here's what Ms. Bird wrote about the bird in question ;) --

"HENNY by Elizabeth Rose Stanton . . .
because sometimes you gotta love the weird. Weird is easy to write but hard to do well. This book is about a chicken with human arms. To those of you who are instantly interested, this one’s for you. It is done exceedingly well."


This hopefully bodes well for the future of our fine feathered-and-armed (in a good way) friend! Be sure to click the Fuse #8 link to see some of the other really fun-looking 2014 books Betsy highlighted :)

And here's a gentle reminder-- to get your very own copy of HENNY, you can order** from: amazon, Barnes and Noble and, best of all, your own independent bookstore*.

*If you would like a signed copy, I will post the direct link as soon as the order function is up-and-running at The Secret Garden Bookshop here in Seattle.  Stay tuned!  :)

**Remember, pre-orders count!  (Click HERE to find out why).

Henny and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts! xxoo

HENNY'S UP!!

HENNY'S gone live! 

I just discovered (literally, since they don't tell you) that  HENNY is now up for pre-order!  It was super exciting to type in the title and have her pop up.  One more step closer to reality! Yay!

Simon & Schuster

Amazon 

Barnes & Noble

And, of course, don't forget to ask about it at your local independent bookstore!
My favorite, here in Seattle, is Secret Garden Books (and they ship)  :-)

Henny sends big hugs to everyone!