ALACon 2017
*Disclaimer: in no way am I trying to brag about anything. The purpose of this article is to tell a story and share my experiences with other book lovers. So I got an amazing opportunity a few months ago… it started with an update on my school’s website that read: “Do you like to read?” Naturally, I continued reading. The gist of the post was that the American Library Association’s annual conference was in Chicago this year, and they were accepting applications from high schools in the area to be part of a teen feedback panel to review some of the nominees for the “Best Fiction for Young Adults” list of 2018.
I had lots of questions but I was immediately intrigued. First of all, if you haven’t been to BookCon, BEA, (sorry, Book Expo) or the ALA Conference then you are missing out. If you can attend one of these events at least once in your life, then you will actually believe in magic. It’s almost as good as Christmas, maybe better. Picture this: a giant room filled with booths and stands from publishers, authors, and bookish merchandisers. Their goal is to get you to buy their stuff, now and in the future. So, you grab one of the many tote bags they hand you (trust me, you will need a lot of them) and you walk by the booths as you fill your bags with as much free stuff as you can carry. A lot of them will be BOOKS.
But not just any books. ARCs. For those of you that don’t know, ARC stands for advanced reader’s copy. For those of us that have been in the YA community for a while, we all know that ARCs are the coveted, magical, pre-release non-edited manuscript of a book. Your favorite author’s new book months before the release date, even before the cover reveal sometimes! Barely anything can beat snagging the ARC of one of your most anticipated releases.
So you are walking through the Exhibit Hall and your arms are shaking from the weight of all your beautiful books, ARCs, and merch. It’s pretty hard to beat that.
BUT WAIT. There’s more.
Not only are the books you've desired waiting there in that Exhibit Hall for you, but authors are too! You may get to wait in line and meet them, check out their panel, or just stumble across them in the Exhibit Hall! You might meet your favorite booktuber, bookstagrammer (is that a word?) or blogger in that room, and if not, you are surrounded by people that love books just as much as you. They will also, on demand, rant about a book with you.
So yeah, ALA, Book Expo, BookCon, pretty magical things.
So either I just explained your dream to you, or you’ve heard this all before/experienced it. Now you are either bored or reliving the best day of your life and sad that you have to wait a whole year to attend these events again. Crud, I’m sorry, let’s get on with the story.
The only details I knew about the feedback panel after reading this update was that we would be talking in front of people about books. Okay, so I’m a terrible public speaker but it’s books, and I promise you I can go on about the same book for hours at a time. The second thing I knew was that we would receive free badges for the Exhibit Hall. By that point, I didn’t care what else was required, I was sold.
More details started coming through as ALACon drew closer: our library group had been accepted to the panel (we had a group of seven accepted for a group of fifty, out of more than 150 applicants!) the library would provide us transportation, and our feedback panel would get a lunch before (PIZZA yum.)
So we did find out another AMAZING part of our panel. But I think I will tell you later on… mwahaha.
The Saturday of ALACon arrives. I was up by 6 am and running on six hours of sleep. I had read 7 books out of 55 from the BFYA list, I had notes about them all, and I had a list of ARCs that I would hunt down. I felt super prepared. Our transportation to the panel got us there just early enough for us to stare longingly at the Exhibit Hall, not yet open. I was bouncing on the tips of my toes and pacing. We saw on Twitter that Rick Riordan was coming. We started freaking out, although we never did find him. We saw all the posters for the upcoming releases, which only made me greedy about those ARCs lying not far from me in the Exhibit Hall of McCormick Place.
The Exhibit Hall opens, and we bolted. I stayed with the group as I try to stop at the booths I wanted without getting left behind, and without running off in search of free books without everyone. I snag almost everything I wanted. They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera, One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake, There’s Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins. Insert the “screaming in excitement” emoji here.
So I had a backpack and two tote bags full of books when I stumbled across a line. The line started with a girl holding up The Sun Is Also a Star high in the air. No one was going to talk me out of leaving the line even though we had to leave the Exhibit Hall in fifteen minutes for our panel. Nicola Yoon was so sweet and it was so great to meet her and have her sign my book.
After leaving the Expo Hall, my previous BookCon experience mattered not. I had no expectations from this point on.
So the thing I said I kept from you before, well, here it is. Our “pizza lunch” wasn’t just for us, but twelve authors! The authors would be “speed dating” our tables, getting to know us, and signing the books that we got in the Expo Hall (us panel teens were special and were automatically rewarded certain ARCs at the booths.) Before our “speed dating” began, I got the chance to talk with Marie Lu. Let me tell you, I admire her so much as a writer and I couldn’t believe I was standing in her presence. You could tell how much she loved her work by the way she spoke about it, and it was so amazing to speak with her.
Here’s the sad part of the day, though I shouldn’t complain at all: I also got the chance to introduce myself to E. Lockhart as we were going through the line. Not wanting to miss my chance, I asked her if she would sign my books. When I went to get them, she was already sitting down, so I decided to let her eat and wait for her to get to my table. Except, we didn’t get to meet all the authors. She had to leave before I could talk to her again, leaving me full of regret.
I did get to meet so many other authors though, like Nic Stone and Sandhya Menon. Everyone I met that day were amazing people and inspirations. While talking with them, I felt like I had burst out of a type of shell. Everyone says it, and the butterflies in my stomach will never really accept it but authors are normal people too. The more you meet, the easier it is to talk to them. It’s not like the first time where it goes like, “Hi……. I REALLY like your books!……. Yeah, can I get a picture?” The more you talk to anyone that you may have told yourself to fear talking to, the easier it is to talk normally. That’s why every book lover should go to a convention once: talking to people with a shared interest is a great place to start.
Later that day: it’s time for the panel. I’m maybe one of the less nervous ones, and I’m pretty nervous. In front of a crowd of fifty teens, and maybe fifty other librarians and professionals, I had to state my opinion for better or worse. It didn’t help that other students had full-fledge book reviews typed in paragraph form with them, while I had small, speedily-written bullet points. We started going through the list, and I was my library’s first representative to speak. It went so-so. I think my limbs were visibly trembling and I tripped heading back to my seat. I ended up speaking about only three of the books I read: The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli, Caraval by Stephanie Garber, and We Are Okay by Nina LaCour. We didn’t get through the whole list. I couldn’t talk about A List of Cages by Robin Roe, my favorite from the list. The one review that was shared was a negative one that I disagreed with 100%. But overall, the panel went really well and I felt super professional, haha.
So, as my friends and I crowded into a car with over 234 books (we counted, but of course) while we reminisced about our day, tired jelly arms, our run-ins with authors we admired so much, we all had to feel thankful to be given this chance. And although it seems like a dream, it's just the book community getting together and celebrating what we all love. It’s well worth it if you ever get the chance, and I promise you will experience a day that you will never forget.
Thanks so much for sticking with me through this long article. As my first, I am super excited to share it on this blog. If you would like an ALA Haul, just comment below! I hope you enjoyed!
Lots of love,
Ellie
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