4 Presentations from the 2014 National Book Festival

I spent most of August 30th wishing I were at the 2014 National Book Festival. Attending the 2011 fest is one of my happiest book memories.

If, like me, you didn't get to attend the festival in person, you can now watch the presentations online. Below you'll find four of the presentations that I watched and loved. Enjoy! 

"I was not a writer as a kid. I was a drawer.  And so the words when I make books always seem to be the most challenging part for me to create whereas the pictures seem to come more naturally.  That's not to say it's not hard sometimes but I just always am more secure that I'll get there in the end if I just keep at it." -Molly Idle

"I have hundreds of notebooks and where I keep all my notes, and eventually they turn into something, and this one, like that little drawing of a cat turned into Rotten Ralph, those things just pop out of your notebooks randomly.  And then we get to the Joey books.  I got to make sure I get to my watch.  So the first Joey book." -Jack Gantos 

"And I studied baseball in all its different ways because when I was a kid my father used to take me to go watch baseball games, too, so I was very interested in illustrating this book and having fun with Louise Borden's Baseball Is..." - Raul Colon

"And if the kids in my books weren't honeys and angels and darlings and little sweetie pies, that's because angels and darlings and sweetie pies were definitely not my kids [laughter]. No. My boys weren't neat,or always polite, or always well behaved. They were loud, very loud and also sloppy. They bled a lot. They spilled a lot of things. They fought. They got into trouble. They acted real silly." -Judith Viorst

(I posted Kate DiCamillo's presentation on October 1.)