Good times at AASL!

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I just spent a week at the AASL National Conference -- a giant assembly of school librarians and authors.  I had a fantastic time catching up with old friends and meeting a ton of new people.  I was there to moderate a panel about Boys Reading Fantasy with Neal Shusterman, Tony Abbott, Adam Gidwitz, William Alexander, and Jon Scieszka! Here are pictures of them all dressed up as sci-fi/fantasy tropes: 

King Aux PrincessShusterman Harry Scieszka Gandalf Abbott 

 

 

 PirateAlexander

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Alien Gidwitz

It was a good time -- it mainly consisted of the panelists making fun of me.  As it turns out, these five authors had incredible insights into the creation and reading of fantasy.  The highlight may have been when Gidwitz paraphrased some seriously brilliant Chesterton:

“Fairytales don't tell children that dragons exist; children already know that dragons exist. Fairytales tell children that dragons can be killed.”
 
More pictures below. Huge thanks to MaryAnn Scheuer and Rocco Staino for putting things together! Pics below:

 aasl photo

 Up next -- I'll be signing books at NCTE in Boston! Hope to see you there!