hanging with Babar

Last week I went into New York City for the Child Magazine Best Books of 2005 Awards celebration. I had the honor of meeting Laurent de Brunhoff, who has been creating Babar books for 60 years. It was incredible to meet someone who is a living history of the book world. Laurent was being honored with a lifetime achievement award.

There were a ton of other great authors and illustrators there as well! Mo Willems told me a while back that this event was always a stellar one – and he was so right! While I had “met” a number of the artists over the phone a few years ago when I was asking them to create snowflakes for Robert’s Snow, it was really cool to meet Mark Teague, Chris Rashka and John J. Muth in person.

I also got to meet some great fans. Including a dad who told me how much Punk Farm meant to his son and a kid who told me that his favorite bands were among those listed on Punk Farm’s website as their favorite bands.
“What are some of your favorite bands?” I asked.
“Blondie,” he responded without missing a beat. He went on to list Green Day, the Ramones and the Clash as well. So awesome.

Laurent deBrunhoff

All of the authors and illustrators.

Mo Willems

Knopf REPRESENT! Michelle and Nancy

Beckerman is now an AD at Abrams and is in charge of stuff

Megghan McCarthy & agent extraordinaire Rebecca Sherman

3 of John McNeil's favorite people