We went to the event at UCLA in 2008, and because we stayed mostly in the children's areas sponsored by the Target retailer both times, I couldn't really note any major differences (except that USC's campus is a little more compact and less hilly than UCLA's). This year's festival promised to have shuttle buses running to and from Union Station on the other side of downtown, terminus of MTA's Red and Purple subway lines and the Gold Line light rail from Pasadena and the Blue Line from Long Beach. Also, there were supposed to be shuttles running to another major book event this weekend, LeaLA, a book fair of Spanish-language books put on by the organizers of an international festival in Guadalajara, Mexico at the Convention Center a couple miles north of USC.
Three years ago, the highlight of our visit was a reading and book signing by Katharine Hollabird, author of the Angelina Ballerina series. My family didn't really know his books at the time, but immediately after Hollabird was a reading by Mo Willems, author of the Knuffle Bunny and Pigeon series. This time, Mo Willems was the main reason to visit. His Knuffle Bunny books and Elephant and Piggie easy reader series have been favorites of our children for the past several years.
Willems is currently on a tour promoting his new book Hooray for Amanda & Her Alligator, which he read to the enthusiastic audience. I hadn't seen the book yet, but the pages had been digitally scanned and were on the large video screens next to the stage, and the book had the same delightful humor and clever illustrations as his other work we love.
He did an interesting thing before starting--Willems told the audience that he wasn't fond of photographs and camcorders, and asked everyone to go ahead and take their photos at the beginning, posing in several increasingly absurd poses. He then asked everyone to put away their cameras and video cameras and phones, and take their hands and put them on the hand of the child they came with, and dispense with the documenting of the moment. It was a nice touch for him to focus on the storytelling (although perhaps he does not like having his readings recorded?).
If you've never seen a public performance, Mo Willems performs the dialogue and facial expressions of his characters with such energy, the audience never fails to be entertained. (I also enjoyed his emceeing of the Book Cart championships at the ALA Conference in 2008.) After finishing his reading of Hooray for Amanda, he seemed to check his remaining time, and then also read from his most recently published Elephant and Piggie book, I Broke My Trunk!.
Explaining that his Elephant and Piggie books are easy readers, he said these types of books are books that are easy to read (with simple words, they help beginning readers learn how to read). Therefore, one of his earliest Elephant and Piggie books, My Friend Is Sad, could not have been titled My Companion Has Manic-Compulsive Disorder for obvious reasons.
He also gave a shout-out to the teachers and librarians in the audience, asking the audience members to applaud them for their work serving the community's children.
It was a really warm day, in the 80s, and it was hard for our family to walk around the USC grounds without tiring quickly. After a while spent in the Target booksale tent, we made our way around the vendor booths in the children's area and then around the USC campus, stopping to get some free ice cream sponsored by Target and Ben and Jerry's.
