Children's Literature Conference

Laura McGee Kvasnosky and I

The following weekend on the 25th of February was the Western Washington University's Children's Literature Conference. In all honesty I was a bit apprehensive about the whole thing and what it would be like. I'd volunteered to help out during the day so I had to be there an hour before the conference actually began. When I got there, everyone was in a frenzy trying to make sure everything was in place for the onslaught of people that were about to pour through the doors. I was looking forward to meeting the authors who were going to be at this years conference; Gary Schmidt, Patrick Carmen and Laura McGee Kvasnosky. As it was I ended up helping Gary with his book signings in the morning and directing conference goers to Laura's signing table in the afternoon. The conference itself was great! Gary, Patrick and Laura all gave wonderful speeches - the stories they had to tell were humorous, sad, witty and all-over amazing! Gary told of how he was once invited to be a guest speaker at a book club. Instead of ending up at a school like he was expecting, he found himself out at a maximum security prison for juveniles talking with a small group of boys (aged 9-17) who had been reading his book 'Wednesday Wars'. Over the coming weeks he continued to go out there and meet with these boys who society had all but given up on and he was amazed at what these boys had to say about his book and that they could relate to it so well.

Gary Schmidt and I

Towards the end of the day as things were wrapping up I had the chance to purchase some books and get them signed by all the authors. For a book nerd like I am it was pretty special. The conference was started by one of the lecturers at WWU who runs a children's literature class (which I took while I was there) and basically just gets a few authors together each year to discuss children's books, what inspired them to write, the topics they cover - things like that.

It's definitely something I won't forget in a hurry and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to attend something like this. I would love to come back for next years 10 year anniversary conference.

Danielle xx

San Francisco

The last few weeks of Winter quarter were insane - assignments due, study for finals, computer breaking down, planning/packing for spring break, visiting Seattle - but I would do it again in a heartbeat (ok, maybe not the computer thing...that wasn't fun)! Anyway, I've been meaning to do a blog for a while about my time here so here's the start of my updates!

Frank the tank almost stuck in a tree in the redwoods

Exploring the redwood forest

The crazy started over President's day weekend when 7 of us did a road trip to San Francisco. We started our trip on Friday afternoon (slightly later than planned as we had minor dramas with car hire...namely the car hire place had booked us a car for 5 people and we needed one for 7) but after this was sorted we were on our way! Things were going relatively smoothly until we hit traffic in Seattle. Since it was Friday night, peak hour traffic AND a public holiday it took about 2 hours just to pass through Seattle. After that though things were fine. We continued on...and on...and on....using music to keep us awake, talking, laughing, making frequent stops and taking short naps. The plan was to stop in Crescent City for the night since the drive was so long but since we were so delayed with leaving we didn't arrive there until about 5am. We checked in at our hotel and slept for a few hours (hey, something is better than nothing!!)  and then proceeded to briefly explore Crescent City and have breakfast at Denny's where it was raining and cold and gray. After refuelling (both ourselves and the car) we drove down through the redwoods which were pretty spectacular! We stopped a few times along the way to explore - climbed some trees, climbed inside some trees, witnessed Jonny pretend to be Harry Potter running from deatheaters and stack it in the forest and overall just stretch our legs. We had some fab views of the ocean and passed through some very quaint towns. In the redwoods there's a tree that you can drive through. It's a tourist trap (i.e. they charge you a bomb to drive through a tree and back out onto the road again) but we decided to do it. Most of our reasoning was "if we don't do it now we'll regret it" and "who knows when we'll be back here?!" so we paid and continued down the track to this tree. We started to drive through however the guy at the gate had failed to warn us that the gap is kinda narrow and we were in a tank. There were a few very tense minutes as we thought we were either going to get A) stuck or B) lose our side mirrors. Lucky for us (and the car!) we made it through thanks to Jaclyn's superb driving skills! As a result of our adventure, our rental car was christened Frank the tank. Anyway, after a few more hours driving through the forest we eventually made it to San Francisco at about midnight. So worth it! Unfortunately we were staying downtown in a rather, er, interesting part of the city but it was fun none the less (as a side note, I recommend staying out at Fisherman's Wharf as opposed to Downtown). Over the next three days we explored San Francisco. We went to Fisherman's Wharf which was really nice and had lots of restaurants and shops around the place (ghirardelli chocolate...mmm), rode the trolley, hired bikes and rode across the Golden Gate Bridge (which I highly recommend), wandered around Downtown and went to Alcatraz, which was a great experience and very informative. And then we drove home, desperately trying to get back before classes started at 10am on Tuesday morning as one of us had an exam that same morning. It was a close call but we got back just in time for the exam and at the perfect time for the rest of us to sleep.

Danielle xx