Another Year, Another Journey Through The Magical Land of Book Expo

Another Year, Another Journey Through The Magical Land of Book Expo This year I attended the last day of BookExpo. BookExpo is a magical land in the heart of New York City, at a place called the Javits Center. It is full of tote bags. So, so many tote bags. Can you spot all of the tote bags in this picture? I bet you cant. At BookExpo, you can meet celebrities like John Cena and Lupita Nyongo, both of whom have written childrens books this year. It seems like thats the thing to do these days. Or,   you can meet Sean Penn, if thats the sort of thing youre into instead (Just a little joke, Sean Penn! You were great in  Mystic River).  Im not sure exactly what Sean Penn was doing there, but hes probably also written a childrens book. Two years ago, I went to  BookCon, which is apparently not the same thing as BookExpo, but they are related, which is confusing. BookExpo is more for industry insiders (fancy) while BookCon is more for the general public. Both are overwhelming and generally result in walking around in a daze, taking in the breathless sights of the sheer number of books in the world and the sad fact that even if you lived a thousand lifetimes, you would never have time to read all of them. Some people do try, though. The sheer amount of checked rolling suitcases waiting to be filled with ARCs of new books is also staggering: No, this is not an airport. Even so, I have come to love this annual tradition. I got to see a panel of diverse middle grade authors talk about the importance of representation for middle schoolers. I picked up a large stack of books that Im excited about diving into, particularly  My Life As An Ice Cream Sandwich, from  National Book Award finalist Ibi Zoboi, and  Im Telling The Truth But Im Lying,  a new essay collection by  Bassey Ikpi. I also got an ARC of the new adventure/graphic novel hybrid  Cursed, by Thomas Wheeler with illustrations by Frank Miller. I really like Millers artwork. Imagine my surprise when I brought it home to glance through it to see that most of the artwork wasnt even there. Curse you, Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers Division! But really, its on me, I guess. Thats what I get for waiting for 45 minutes for an ARC! But really, after several years now of covering the bookselling and book publishing world, what I have really come to have a great fondness for is the community. People say all the time that people in the book industry are some of the greatest in the world. At BookExpo, it really is true. Im sure there are some bad apples, but if so I havent met any yet. My favorite thing about BookExpo is walking through the chaos of Javits, amidst all of the books and all of the promotional materials and advertisements, and seeing three or four people just sitting at a table, talking passionately together. Sure it can be mega-corporatized, but its also great to see so many people converge on one place, all to share their love of books. I wasnt kidding when I said it was a magical place. Also, did I mention there were cool totes? #worthit