Childcare at ALA

Our Monday morning visit to the ALA conference in Anaheim was a zippy two hours, but we made it to many of our favorite picture book publishers: Chronicle Books, Kane/Miller, Boyds Mill Press (who acquired Front St. and has the Belgian imprint Lemniscaat), Lee & Low Books and their imprint Bebop books,Tricycle Press, Independent Publishers Group, August House, Albert Whitman & Company, Kid's Can Press.

We didn't know about the Child Care offered at the ALA conference this year until we saw the sign at the entrance or we would have worked it out to bring the kids and talked more : )

The Fall 2008 catalogs include some wonderful new titles and some old favorites which we'll be blogging about in the next couple of weeks. Kim took photos of the Kane/Miller and Chronicle Books booths and I believe she'll also be posting about some of her favorites.

The family reunion was a blast and the kids enjoyed swimming and popsicles in the 100 degree heat. We don't have that kind of heat here in Half Moon Bay. Thanks again to Mom and Dad for putting up with our mess and for watching the kids while we were out (something else I don't have much of at home... time to go out I mean, we have plenty of mess.)

And this was the first time I've been to Disneyland with children of my own. What a different perspective to go with a child on your shoulders. Somehow Sleeping Beauty's Castle was not as far down Main Street as I remembered. And the Pirates! I think we took this photo shortly after the ride. Do they look a little disoriented? We spared them the Haunted Mansion until perhaps next year. For anyone curious about the Nemo submarine ride- don't bother unless the line is less than 30 minutes long.













Lastly, we took a movie clip of the pirates singing Yo Ho A Pirate's Life for Me out on Tom Sawyer's Island (which I think is now called Treasure island or Jack Sparrow's Island.. another literary reference lost. But the clip didn't turn out so well so I'll post one similar from a previous year. Of course, this song is now stuck in my head for the evening!