The Association of Jewish Libraries has published the preliminary program for its annual convention which will take place in Chicago this July 5-8. I’m on the program to deliver a session called How I learned about Amazing Jewish Books through Social Media. I’ll be highlighting ways in which Jewish children’s books and their authors and illustrators are being promoted using the Internet, and how communities of people are engaging in the conversation about Jewish literature.
As part of my session, I plan to highlight several book creators I learned about through social media, including Richard Michelson. Ironically, Richard will in another room at the same time as I’ll be presenting, talking about The Sydney Taylor Awards. Richard is the laureate of two Sydney Taylor’s this year marking the first time in the 40-year history of the awards in which one author claimed both The Sydney Taylor Book Award (equivalent of a gold medal) for As Good as Anybody, and The Sydney Taylor Honor Award (equivalent of a silver medal) for A is for Abraham. The awards are being handed out during a banquet on the Tuesday evening.
See you in Chicago, Richard. And, congratulations… again!
UPDATED to correct an error I made in reporting about Richard’s session.
Airlines can be amazing. On Friday night, the Chicago to Des Moines flight I was on backed out of the gate and stopped a few moments later. We sat for about five or so minutes before the Captain announced that a “little person” had left something of “significant value” in the terminal and “beyond all hope” it had been found. He asked the passengers to be patient while the ground crew drove out to the plane to pass the valuable through the cockpit window and thanked us for our patience noting that we would be equally grateful had it been “you” — I agree with him. About ten minutes later a flight attendant walked proudly to the back of the plane and handed a toy to a “little person” in the very last row of the plane. It was a moment that should have been accompanied by a chorus of applause.
