Just call me Lucien: Recap of NY Comic Con

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the New York Comic Con, and here are some highlights:

1. THANK YOU, REED EXHIBITIONS, for learning from your mistakes. This is the third time I've attended NYCC and every year it is more organized, seems less crowded, and offers a wider range of programming. The first year, the exhibits hall looked like rush hour on the A train. This year, there were wider aisles and everyone could move around much easier. I got through registration quickly and easily. Also, thank you for offering free registration to librarians. What was the one major thing wrong with this year's programming lineup? All the programs I wanted to go to were at the same time. It seems like no one considered the idea that often, the children's librarian and the teen librarian in any given library are the same person. With the children's-centric panels and the teen-centric panels running concurrently, librarians often had to sacrifice one for the other.

2. The exhibits themselves were really neat. I am not as well-versed in the comics world as many of my colleagues, so it was cool to see the wide range of available (and vintage/collectible) comics and graphic novels. In addition to the comics booths, major publishers had booths and were offering some galleys and trade editions of popular titles. I know I saw Harper, Random, Tor, Hachette, and a few others. What I found most interesting, though, was that the titles these publishers were offering were almost entirely fantasy and science fiction. I realize many comics and graphic novels are centered on fantastic themes and ideas, but didn't Neil Gaiman say that graphic novels are a format, not a genre? One would think that people who enjoy comics and graphic novels but prefer realistic fiction to fantasy would want to see publishers displaying their realistic fiction as well. So now I'm curious: Who else out there likes graphic novels but prefers realistic fiction to speculative fiction?

3. Fabulous panel #1: "Helping bookstores buy and shelve comics for teens." I know libraries aren't bookstores, but when it comes to moving and marketing the teen collection in a library, I like to employ the occasional bookstore technique (handselling, faceouts, themed displays, etc.). The panel included buyers and distributors of YA novels and graphic works, who talked about issues of visual content, cultural differences, and age ratings on manga. They also discussed issues behind shelving and marketing a graphic novel collection for teens.

4. Fabulous panel #2: "Age-appropriate content for kids and teen comics." Lana Adlawan and the awesome Alison Hendon from the Brooklyn Public Library gave an excellent run-down of high quality graphic works for people ages 0-18. At the end, they talked about their wishlist for graphic novel publishers who want to see more libraries buying their books, including higher-quality printings, better bindings, etc.

5. Sherrilyn Kenyon is just about the nicest author ever, even though I made a fool of myself in front of her.

6. Fabulous panel #3: "Minx: Your life in pictures." Minx, an imprint of DC Comics aimed at teen girls, had several of their authors and illustrators on a panel and showed preview pages from upcoming books to the audience. I'm really excited to read all of them, especially because I've read and loved previous Minx titles.

I really wanted to go to the dinner with Neil Gaiman, too, but alas, I lack the $400 it would have cost. Ah well. I will have to follow my fish from afar.

crossposted at Pop Goes the Library

Librarian/reviewer preview: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

There's nothing like a librarian/reviewer preview, let me tell you. Thank you very much to Michelle Fadlalla (a friend of BCCLS!) and everyone at S&S BYR for a very enjoyable morning and previews of some fabulous-looking titles. The highlights:

• The seventeeth floor of the Simon & Schuster building is a...the best way I can describe it is librarian fairyland. It's white with dark bookcases and accents and is sort of a cross between a S&S museum and Daddy Warbucks's house in the movie Annie. Pictures of their famous authors hang on the walls. The main hallway echoes. And the room where the presentation was held had bookcases built into the walls. I want to live there when I grow up.



• The guest of honor was John Scieszka, who I've never met in person. The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales is an all-time favorite of mine, so it was squee-inducing to hear him speak. He introduced the audience to his upcoming picture-book series, Trucktown and...SMASH! CRASH! One of the best things about the series is that it emphasizes having fun and making noise, which so often gets lost in all the "educational" books and videos but are so important to child development.



• I'm not on the 2009 Printz committee, but if I were I'd be saving this book for future reference: You Know Where to Find Me by Rachel Cohn. It's a first-person story of two close cousins, one of whom commits suicide despite having a seemingly perfect life. It has a fabulous sense of place and the characterizations are weird but wonderful. It's a departure from what we usually see from Rachel Cohn, and a wonderful departure at that. Not that Rachel Cohn writes bad books, just that this one is quite different.



• Perfect You by Elizabeth Scott is a very well structured, yet sad, addition to the chick-lit genre. Without spoiling it, I will say this: I really admired that Scott put the proverbial gun on the mantel in Acts I and II and fired it in Act III. The ending of the book was difficult to read but very well done.
  
  
• Other books I picked up but haven't had a chance to read because I was so busy reading for ALA Midwinter: City of Ashes: The Mortal Instruments, Book 2 by Cassandra Clare, Secrets of my Suburban Life by Lauren Baratz-Logsted, Three Little Words by Ashley Rhodes-Courter, and Me, In-Between, also by Lauren Baratz-Logsted,
  
  
• Books I didn't pick up at the preview, but am expecting in the mail: Wake by Lisa McMann and I Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder

I could occupy myself for a month just with S&S. I really need to change my "books" tag to "so many books, so little time."

Cool stuff I get to do: An Evening with Scholastic

No pictures of the event because I've got no idea what happened to my camera, but, a write-up.

When NCTE had its annual meeting at the Javits Center in mid-November, Scholastic held a wonderful event for teachers and librarians. They invited several of their authors (alas, not J.K. Rowling) to come and speak to a group of us and read from their books. Afterwards, we were all invited to see the Scholastic Living Room and celebrate Brian Selznick's National Book Award finalist, The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Other authors in attendance were Pam Munoz Ryan, James Cross Giblin, Christopher Paul Curtis, Sharon Robinson, and Jaclyn Moriarty. They were all wonderful readers and Christopher Paul Curtis especially is always a joy to hear in person.

The Scholastic Living Room is a beautiful room about the size of your average NYC studio apartment which overlooks Broadway. There's comfortable furniture, nice plush carpeting, and the walls are covered in art from some of Scholastic's most enduring works, including Harry Potter, Madeline, and Where the Wild Things Are. We were able to walk around the room, drink champagne, and meet the authors. Everyone in attendance received copies of the authors' books for signing. Brian Selznick was very nice when I told him I was ashamed of not having yet read Hugo Cabret. So many books, so little time, as we all know too well in this profession.

Thank you so very much, Scholastic, for your generous invitation. I had a fantastic time and have developed an intense desire to curl up in the living room and read and eat cupcakes from the Dean and DeLuca across the street. Um, not that I don't have a desire to curl up with a good book and a Dean and Deluca cupcake on a regular basis, but that living room just makes the idea that much more enticing.