I’m still catching up from last week…Thanksgiving and the NCTE Conference and ALAN Workshop in Las Vegas.  But now that I’m digging out from the turkey bones and piles of laundry, I wanted to share a few more photos from an amazing week.

After three days of speaking and signing at NCTE, I had one last event before heading home — an ALAN breakout session called “Creating Ripples: Writing for Kids in the Middle” with some of the authors who inspire me most.  We had a wonderful afternoon talking with teachers about why writing for middle school kids is such a privilege for us.  Here’s our panel:

I loved hearing the other ALAN speakers in the main ballroom, too — so many amazing ideas and so much inspiration. But I also spent a little time away from the conference center on the Monday afternoon of ALAN.

This is Valley of Fire State Park. My friend & fellow TED2012 speaker Angie Miller decided that a little fresh air would do us good after Monday’s morning workshop, so we rented a car and headed out to climb rocks, spot wildlife, ogle 4000-year-old petroglyphs, and just explore. Here’s some of what we found.

Valley of Fire is a truly stunning landscape — one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen with so much space to roam. It was so very welcome after the bright lights and loud music of Vegas.

Between the wonder of the desert and the magic of so many book lovers at NCTE/ALAN, I came home feeling refreshed and full of hope. The world is a pretty amazing place, full of some truly awesome people.

Imagine a conference center full of thousands of teachers who love books, reading, and writing more than anything.  Add in a hundred or so enthusiastic authors, an enormous exhibit hall full of amazing books, and a music-pulsing, neon-light flashing hotel lobby, and you can begin to imagine this year’s NCTE Conference and ALAN Workshop in Las Vegas.

 My conference began with a signing of EYE OF THE STORM, followed by a wonderful dinner with the Walker/Bloomsbury crew, including my fellow KidLitCares organizer Joanne Levy. Here’s the whole bunch of us showing off the team’s latest books.

(From left to right: Linette Kim, Susan Vaught, Michelle Naglar, me, Emily Eason, Donna Knoell, Megan Miranda, Shannon Hale, Sarah Maas, Jessica Warman, Lindsey Leavitt, Caroline Abbey, and Beth Eller)

The next morning, I headed to my first speaking engagement, where I met up with my fellow panelists, Donna Knoell, Anita Silvey, who talked about THE PLANT HUNTERS, which I started reading on the plane home, and Lindsey Leavitt, whose upcoming book GOING VINTAGE looks so funny. Here’s Lindsey…

My long-time online friend, author April Henry, stopped by my signing at Chronicle Books to say hello.  We figured out that we’ve been chatting over our blogs since 2006 or so but never connected in person until Saturday.

I spent an hour at Chronicle, signing SEA MONSTER’S FIRST DAY along with lots and lots of copies of OVER AND UNDER THE SNOW, which was on the NCTE Notable Books in the Language Arts list this year.

I also signed copies of REAL REVISION at Stenhouse, and the very first advance reader copies of HIDE AND SEEK at Scholastic.

This one’s the second book in the Silver Jaguar Society Mysteries with Scholastic, and it comes out April 1^st.

 I got to spend much of Sunday morning with the Scholastic team and several hundred amazing teachers at the Scholastic Literary Brunch.  We shared excerpts from our new and upcoming books, using a readers’ theater format, which was so much fun. I got to read from CAPTURE THE FLAG, Blue Balliett’s HOLD FAST, and Eliot Schrefer’s ENDANGERED, along with Blue, Eliot, and David Levithan.

 After brunch, it was time for the session celebrating NCTE’s Notable Books in the Language Arts, where OVER AND UNDER THE SNOW was one of thirty books honored.  I was happy to see my friend Linda Urban’s HOUND DOG TRUE on the big screen, too!

Sunday night brought a Scholastic family dinner at a great Mexican restaurant whose name eludes me.  A few of us decided to forego the cab ride and walk back to our hotel instead.  Las Vegas is very shiny.

I’m not much of a fan of casinos and loud music, but the lights were pretty, and Las Vegas sure knows how to do dessert.

Monday kicked off the amazing, author-filled ALAN Workshop, along with a little time away from the city lights, climbing rocks at Valley of Fire State Park.  More photos to come in a future post, but now…it’s time for the quiet of home and some turkey this weekend.  Hope you’ve all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Earlier this week, I attended the biggest Scholastic Book Fair in the country – absolute heaven for a book geek like me!

This is just part of the set-up at the amazing Montclair Kimberley Academy in New Jersey, which is celebrating its 125th birthday this year. There were SO many books, and Scholastic brought in authors to speak to the students each day. I was one of the featured presenters, along with Trent Reedy, Lisa McMann, Loren Long, Matthew Reinhart, and Dav Pilkey.

Because this whole part of New Jersey was hit hard by Superstorm Sandy, I wondered for a while if this scheduled event would happen, but the Scholastic folks assured me that the school had power, even though most of the families’ homes did not, and the book fair would be a welcome break from storm clean up.  I knew there were lots of people in this area who couldn’t even think of getting to a book fair, though, so I checked with a Newark Red Cross shelter to see if they could use some books and things for the kids. They said yes – and told me they sure could use some socks and sanitary napkins, too –  so I loaded up my suitcase with books and notebooks…

…then stopped at the store to buy sanitary napkins and lots and lots of socks on my way to the airport. I can only imagine what the TSA inspectors thought of my stuffed-to-bulging bag full of books, socks, and feminine supplies. I had the chance to drop it all off at a shelter not far from the airport in Newark and spend some time talking with the coordinators there, who were still friendly and smiling a week after the storm.

There were plenty of smiles to go around at the book fair, too.  I loved chatting with these kids about books and reading and their own writing, too. Many were working on stories of their own and were eager to tell me about them.

Thanks, Montclair Kimberley Academy and Scholastic, for a wonderful book fair day!