LA Times Festival of Books - Target stage recap

Last week at the LA Times Book Fest, I had a blast reading on the Target sage. And what a stage it was! It has a jumbo-tron screen that allowed attendees to see the action on stage from a distance and a super-nifty easel that looked like framed art.

I loved yucking it up with readers and the other authors in attendance. Here are some of the people I hung out with that day:

Lisa Yee mistook me for the bellhop at the hotel. These aren't her bags, they're Peep's.

That's Josh Lewis and Super Chicken Nugget Boy!

Backstage with Lisa, we had a chuckle about the whole luggage misunderstanding...

Lisa introduced me to THE Megan MacDonald of JUDY MOODY fame. Imagine MY surprise when she geeked out over Lunch Lady. HELLO?! JUDY. MOODY! 

Justin Roberts was charged with the duty of introducing me. Poor guy. He has performed on the Today Show and in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, but the thought of saying "Krosoczka" in front of a crowd had his heart racing. How'd he do? He pronounced "Krosoczka" flawlessly. But poor guy, I will now bust his chops for all time for calling me Gerald. (That's a member of his band.)

Check out the crowd for RL Stine! Got to meet Bob backstage, just a few days before I'd be introducing him at the Children's Choice Book Awards Gala.

Ran into old pal Marc Brown. (And in case you're wondering, I do pinch myself every time I refer to Marc as an old pal. He's one of my heroes.)

For the first time, met Twitter pal and fellow GNist Kazu Kibuishi in person. Amulet=awesome!

This is what it looks like backstage in the control center.

Lunch Lady, come in Lunch Lady... this is Betty!

Check out this video that Twitter pal AlyB took. If you couldn't be at the Fest, here's a little peak at my set:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B5JmfkqZiQ

And finally, saw four of these stellar billboards around town advertising the Fest. WOW!

With all of the highlights of the day, the biggest WOW moment came to me when a young reader was such a fan of the Lunch Lady books that she brought every copy from home and also bought a set to donate to her library. What a cool thing to do! I am beyond honored!


Thanks to all of my friends at Target for an AWESOME day! You guys are doing such wonderful things to promote literacy! Thanks for all of your hard work!