ALA 2009

ALA July 2009. Chicago IL. McCormick Place.

President's Keynote Address 8 a.m. Saturday
Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked, spoke about "Playing with Stolen Property", as he calls his technique of giving new life to characters familiar to all. He talked about playing Oz with his many siblings and giving the baby the role of the Wicked Witch and putting him by the edge of the house. That worked until the baby had wriggled himself under the front porch and started gagging on dirt....Mom's arrival to rescue the baby ended that game of Oz, but left Maguire with stories he needed to tell about Oz.

Maguire's newest project will be Matchless, a holiday retelling of the Little Match Girl, for NPR to be released this holiday season. Four stars.

Blogging and Books: Made for Each Other?
Panelists John Green, Kaite Mediatore Stover, Mary Burkey, and Nora Rawlinson held a lively discussion moderated by Keir Graff about the reasons they blog about books and audiobooks. Just looking at John Green would have been enough to make me happy, but he's also quite funny and articulate. Entertaining AND informative! Four stars.

Things That Go Bump in the Stacks: Paranormal Literature
Charlaine Harris, Marjorie Liu, and Charlie Huston spoke about the hottest new fiction trend and their own books, all of which have vampires in very different settings. The clear audience favorite on the panel was Charlaine Harris. Charlie Huston started writing out of desperation so he didn't have to continue tending bar and Majorie Liu, a very prolific writing about vampires in urban lit, clearly must be a better writer than she was a speaker. I did leave the session wanting to read at least one Sookie Stackhouse books to see what the fuss is all about. Three and a half stars.

President’s Program: Literacy Leadership and Librarian
Laurie Halse Anderson, Alan Sitomer and Jacqueline Woodson spoke about the booming field of YA literature and what impact it can have on its teen readers. Sitomer, who was California teacher of the year in 2007, has written several books inspired by his inner city students' lives. Woodson and Anderson both raved about the impact public libraries had on their lives, Anderson going went so far as to assert that they saved her life. Anderson had to leave the session early to receive the Margaret A. Evans award for her writing. She was wearing pink sneakers with I (heart) M.A.E. on them! Four stars.

Giving Maps a Second Life with Digital Technology
David Rumsey is an amazing man. After making a killing in the commercial real estate market in the 1990s, he now spends his time digitizing and making available to everyone anywhere his collection of 20,000 historical maps. He created a map island in Second Life where scholars and other map lovers can get up close to Rumsey's maps, many of which are real works of art as well as important historical documents. The fact that this man is spending so much of his own time and money to make these maps available to everyone for free is truly awe-inspiring. Four stars.

Can't miss the Parade of Bookmobiles, at which Cook and Julie Abbot did us proud. Here it is in front of McCormick Place: http://www.flickr.com/photos/libraryjournal/3716641659/