Lisa Yee's Blog: Henry Winkler, Judy Blume and Other Conference Celebrations

Hmmm . . . where were we? Oh, yes! HERE!

So then, amazing authors and illustrators, editors and agents, were EVERYWHERE. It was as if they had all converged at at the SCBWI Conference, although some behaved better than others.

Here's three time Newbery Honoree, and this year's Golden Kite winner for fiction, Jenni Holm and her friend having some quality quiet time (inside and outside) . . .

Sadly, the same cannot be said of Printz winner Libba Bray and her husband/agent Barry Goldblatt. I believe they were discussing who's turn it was to do the dishes . . .

Luckily for all, they remembered there were no dishes to be washed and they made up rather nicely . . .

Peepy was thrilled to see author, friend, and NPR Wait Wait . . . Don't Tell Me producer Emily Ecton. (Here's what happened when I went to one of the shows.) Anyway, Peepy begged to be on the radio, but her audition did not go well.

We crashed an illustrators social and observed them running around the room waving cards in the air. Speaking of illustrators, we ran into our friend and sorta neighbor Lisze Bechtold . . .

The illustrators' portfolio review yielded some marvelous talent. Here's the room while the judges were doing their thing . . .

Lin Oliver interviewed Judy Blume, and we were all laughing and crying and in in awe of Judy . . .

Arthur Levine, my editor extraordinaire, celebrated the 15th Anniversary of Arthur A. Levine Books with a lunch (and dessert) with his authors who were attending the conference. Look! It's his summer intern, Bobbie Pyron, me, Arthur, Greg Pincus, Mike Jung, Martha Brockenbrough and Dan Santat . . .

The bookstore did a brisk business, especially since all the authors and illustrators were on hand to sign their books . . .

Well, hey! It's Ellen Hopkins! And look, Sarah Davis who illustrated my American Girl KANANI books was there, too!

Why, there's Norton Juster with Peepy!

Illustrator Ken Min asked me to draw Spock ears when I signed his copy of WARP SPEED. And later, I was so busy yapping to someone that I spelled my name wrong . . .

The Gotham Group had a party and we were invited!

From there, we went directly from that party to another --the SCBWI 40 Winks gala . . .

We saw Linda Sue Park (who dresses the same day and night), Jim Averbeck (who sleeps in his underwear) and Jay Asher (who dresses like a bunny at night) . . .

Sara Etienne was a wild thing, and Tina Nichols Coury channeled her inner tooth fairy, plus we saw Winkin, Blinkin and Nod, Goodnight, Gorilla, The Princess and the Pea and others . . .

It was a blast introducing Emily Ecton and agent Brenda Bowen. Earlier this year Brenda was on Wait Wait . . . Don't Tell Me and Emily had produced the show --- but the two had never met in person before!