Books, Books, And More Books!

Today, I went to the LA Times Festival of Books!

I had some folks I wanted to see, 

but in a cool surprise I saw a face from a loooong time ago:

Simon Silva, a high school classmate who went on to become

an author, artist, and speaker.

(On the car ride home, I realized I probably last saw him in person 

more than THIRTY YEARS ago!  Yikes!!)

For the other ... uh... people? I wanted to see,

I may have been the only adult to cop a photo op:

It's the Boxtrolls!!

I adored Laika's last movie, ParaNorman,

so am in an absolute tizzy about the Boxtrolls,

which will come out in September.

And for my thrill of the day?

Tomie dePaola!!!

He is a freakin' rock star of children's lit,

and has written and/or illustrated approximately a meeellion books,

among them Strega Nona, 26 Fairmont Avenue, and The Art Lesson.

I brought my own copy of 26 Fairmont Avenue to be signed,

and bought his new book which he illustrated for writer Lin Oliver,

Little Poems for Tiny Ears.

When it was time to get my books signed,

I told him how we still quote him in my household;

there's a bit in 26 Fairmont Avenue where Tomie is seeing the cartoon

of Snow White, but in his frustration at the changes

from the original Grimm Brother's story

he gets up in the theater and yells,

"Mr. Walt Disney didn't read the story right!"

We say that when there's big changes from a book to a movie.

Mr. dePaola chuckled and said, 

"That's why Walt Disney will never do MY story!"

(Which I'm pretty sure meant Mr. dePaola has had a bit of a wild life.)

Btw?  That last image?

That's the face of a girl who just got to meet one of her idols.

And let me tell you,

if I didn't know better, I would have pegged Mr. dePaola

as easily a decade younger than his seventy-nine years.

He was as spritely and jolly as you could wish

a children's author/illustrator to be.

Anyhoo, this post wouldn't be possible without The Sweet Man,

who acted as my personal photographer for the day.

Yes, he braved LA traffic for me, 

and all he got for his troubles was some tasty gelato.

Sigh... what a lucky woman I am.