Lit Conference Thoughts

It seems that Karen and all of our central Ohio blogging friends have pretty much covered the big Dublin Lit Conference of last Saturday, but I'll add my two cents worth too. The conference was 20 years old this year, I've been teaching in Dublin for 25 years, I've attended the conference 3 times, and this year was the first time I spent the whole day. I'm glad I did!

I served on the planning committee this year as my school's rep, check out the big tricked out name tag. I took on the job out a sense of obligation, but completely enjoyed myself and look forward to next year.

The highlights for me this year included listening to Barbara O'Connor talk about boiled peanuts an other southern delights. I was a bit surprised to hear her southern accent since she lives in Massachusetts. What a wonderful 45 minutes! Barbara shared stories of her career and read from her new books. I think I like her books even more now that I've met her and listened to her share. I've been talking about "writing what you know" with the kids preparing for our James Preller visit, and Barbara gave me one more story to share from a real author. That's me with Barbara and Mary Lee from A Year of Reading.

I presented for the third time, unfortunately my blog partner Karen was unable to participate but, I muddled through. There were about 25 people in my session, up from last year's 10. I hope I didn't talk too fast as I flew through as many book titles as I could in 45 minutes. There was no formal evaluation of the session, but judging from the smiles, I think it went pretty well. I know I certainly enjoyed myself!

Finally, I got to spend the day hosting children's literature icon, Johanna Hurwitz. What a pleasant, friendly lady. She was joined by a friend who lives in the area, so my job was pretty easy, but I did get to spend quite a bit of time listening to her stories and experiences. I was so impressed when people she met on an author visit 17 years ago came for an autograph, and Johanna remembered them. It was also so wonderful to see teachers come for an autograph carrying her books that they read when they were kids and are now using in their classrooms today. What a legacy.