Everything Looks Better in Underpants, or My Weekend at the 2012 Texas Book Festival (as Told in 15 Photos and 1 Video)

I am happy to see the Goddess of Liberty still

triumphantly reigns atop the Texas Capitol 

on this beautiful October weekend.

It's time once again for the Texas Book Festival.

I spend most of my time (as I usually do) in 

the Children's Read Me a Story Tent.

This year, I hear Duncan Tonatiuh (Diego Rivera),

Bob Shea (Dinosaur vs. Santa), Don Tate (It Jes' Happened),

Liz Garton Scanlon (Think Big), Jon Klassen (I Want My Hat Back),

and Tad Hills (Rocket Writes a Story). Fabulous.

School children from the Austin area introduce the authors.

Look at this remarkable intro for author/illustrator Duncan Tonatiuh,

presented in the form of a big book,

modeled after his own book about artist Diego Rivera.

Anita Silvey, 

the Queen of Children's Literature.

I chat with her 

 twice during the festival
and wish I could talk with her every day.

And, of course, I buy a copy of 

her new Children's Book-a-Day Almanac.

Always happy to see book characters themselves

attending the festival.

A crazy-long line for crepes at the festival,

but it is worth the wait.

Don't think the Texas Book Festival is just children's picture books;
I attend a few serious grownup panel discussions, too.
My favorite was this one, Will We Ever Get It Right? Our Education Crisis
with Michael Brick, Meira Levinson, and Paul Tough.

Expect long lines if you really want to get books autographed.

Shy Dav Pilkey (who would have thought it?!) 

really doesn't have to speak much

at this session with fellow authors Mac Barnett,

Jarret J. Krosoczka, and Lisa McMann. 

Everything looks better in underpants.

It takes Batman (Jon Scieszka) and two Robins (Adam Rex and Mac Barnett) 

to announce the 2013-14 nominees for the Texas Bluebonnet Award. 

How cool it is to listen to an author (Rosecrans Baldwin) relate 

his experiences living in Paris 

(Paris, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down)

while sitting in the gallery of the Texas Senate!

And, of course, I had to pop in to get a preview of 

author/illustrator Jon Klassen

who would be coming to speak at my school the very next day.

(More on that in another blog post soon.)

For the first time, I volunteer to be an author escort

at the festival and who do I get to escort around? 

Pop singer Jewel!

She has just published her first children's picture book.

What an amazing voice!

And what an amazing weekend I had!

To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that 

you (or a friend or family member) have taken, 

then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky at At Home With Books. 

What is the Sunday Salon? Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them,and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go.

Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....

That's what happens at the Sunday Salon, except it's all virtual. Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs. Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon, an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities and fall into a good book. Click here to join the Salon.