photos from last week's National Book Festival

Last week, G and I traveled to Washington, D.C. for the National Book Festival. We had never been and I was so delighted by the invitation to read, draw and sign books on the National Mall. There were approximately one-hundred-gazillion people in attendance, many of them with an ISBN. Here are some pictures from the weekend:

On Friday afternoon, I helped plug the National Book Festival on Sirius XM's Kids Place Live. Poor Mindy lost her voice so Calef Brown and I interviewed each other! It was so much fun. And no pressure, but my first time "hosting" a radio show was live and on satellite radio.

Friday night was the Gala reception at the Library of Congress. You know a place is fancy when this is the hallway to the Men's Room.

It was so fancy, I was afraid the Joker and his goons were going to crash the party and snatch up everyone's jewelry. 

They let us authors climb the librarian's command center. That's Tom Angleberger, George O'Connor, Loren Long, Lisa Yee, myself, John Bemelmans Marciano and Eric Wight. 

This is the Reading Room, which is closed off to tourists. Grandeur to the highest level!

Otis and Ollie's fathers at the Library of Congress.

On Saturday morning, I jumped in a cab with Loren and Lisa and we headed to the author's breakfast at the Washington Post. 

There, we saw even more authors! Here is Brian Selznick, John Bemelmans Marciano, myself, Gordon Korman, Lisa Yee, Allen Say, Jon J Muth, and Loren Long. 

Later that morning, we made it over to the festival and hung out backstage with the likes of Tomie dePaola and Matthew Reinhart. . .

And Hoda! Here is G and her cousin with the Today Show co-host. 

It was a great pleasure to meet William Joyce. I've admired his work for as long as I can remember.

Brian signed our copy of Wonderstruck and scoffed at the difficulty of writing out our last name. Whatever, Selznick!

That's John Rocco and Mac Barnett chilling in-between stage times. Snappy dressers, right? 

Here's Jack Gantos working the crowd. Watching Jack give a speech is like watching a prize fighter in the ring!

Finally it was stage time for me!

I did my Lunch Lady thing. I was astounded by how many kids knew the ins and outs of the LL books. They were shouting out the various gadgets. It was amazing and very special for me.

And I met another Jarrett! This Jarrett is only the 6th Jarrett I've met in my entire life!
Photo by @LitChat

I introduced Ollie and read it aloud publicly for the first time. 

I didn't have time to read the full book and the groans from the audience, when I left them hanging at a pivotal point in the story, was all the affirmation I needed for my new book!

Check out Tomie's book signing line! Astounding!  I loved seeing people clutching their copies of Strega Nona.