The Book the Saved BEA

Here is my story of how one book saved BEA for me.

Of course, I had every intention of getting tons of books that I was excited about, but this year I was really enthused about the great children's authors that were going to be there. Most importantly, I was excited about my son's favorite Mo Willems. He writes the fabulous chapter books that feature the serious Elephant and the charming Piggie. We absolutely adore these books in our house and have read them all multiple times.

Mo was #1 on my list to get to bring home for my little kiddo.

He was a ticketed event for Wednesday. I woke up bright and early, like I have mentioned before but when I arrived at BEA at 7:20am (The tickets went on sale at 7), he was sold out.

Well, I cried. Yep, it all came out. It just came over me. I was disappointed in myself. I was missing my son. And darnit, really, 7:20? Not one more ticket? Grr. Argh.

Well, Stacy was a delight and she hopped on Twitter to see if we could get me a ticket. It didn't work but it was a very sweet try on her part.

At this time, exactly, was when I first met Steph and her mother. Not my finest hour but oh well.

There was little I could do at this point so I tried to shrug it off and went on with my day. We headed to the autograph area and I got in line to get another favorite of my son's, the Llama Llama books by Anna Dewdney. I figure I could bring home a close second, that should be okay.

The one great thing about BEA is, I found, that it is easy to chat it up with people in line. So I started doing this again with a few ladies in front of me, all librarians. We got on the topic of the ticketed events and the one lady pulled out a stack of tickets.

I gasped and said "Do you have a Mo Willems tickets?"

And she said, ''Yes, but I don't think I will make it."

I blurted out, "I will pay you for it!"

She kindly said, "You don't have to pay me for it. Here you go."

Well, I started crying again and thanked her and told her she will make my son's day!

She smiled and said "You better get going in line, it's pretty long!"

At this point, I think I shouted out a "Bless your heart" (blame it on Stacy's southern influence!) and ran off.

I actually was one of the first people in line and didn't have to wait for long. Mo was a very nice man when I told him we loved his books.

I tucked his new book, "Should I Share my Ice Cream?" in my bag to bring home, not to ship, so I would have it ready to read the night I got back.

And that's what the pictures are above.

Our facial expressions change to go with the mood of the book as Elephant stresses about whether or not to share his ice cream with Piggie.

Delightful!

I did end up running into that same woman later in the day, in another line and thanked her once again. Not that she would read this post. I don't even think I gave out my business cards at that point so she has probably forgotten her kindness.

But, darnit, I love book people!! Thank you!

Anyway, that's my story of the Book (and the kind librarian) that Saved BEA.

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child