Thursday, June 10, 2010

my dumpling days

A couple of weeks ago, I ended my school visit year with a whirlwind. First, I rushed into NYC for for Book Expo America, where they were going to announce the winner of the EB White Award. We came early just so I could eat my favorite soup dumplings (now that I am writing "Dumpling Days," dumplings are on my mind quite a bit) at Joe Shanghai's:

Yum! Just as good as in China!

But it was in the middle of eating, that I realized that I forgot my lucky jade bracelet. Darn. I would have to go to the EB White event without.

Which was quite an event! My publisher, Little Brown, did me proud with big banners and signs:

What I thought was hilarious was that the publisher tried to encourage booksellers to meet the authors by printing their photos, to help recognition. However, they used my glamour shot author photo, which looks nothing like me! I imagine booksellers were confused.

After passing on the electric blue martinis, the festivities began with music and singing and ending with the announcement of the winner of the EB White Award which was...
not me.

The winner was The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z by the lovely Kate Messner(Congrats, Kate!). Oh well. I knew I was doomed when I forgot the jade bracelet.

But to drown my sorrows, afterwards for dinner we went for soup dumplings AGAIN! There is no disappointment that dumplings cannot comfort.


Then I was off to my last school visits of the year. The first one was in Ct, where there was a lovely welcome banner:

and a wonderful longtime fan, who brought me this photo of the first time we met:

which we retook: Isn't that neat? I can't tell you how much I love when readers grow up with my books. I'm going to start giving prizes away to kids that do this.

From there, we went to Upstate NY, just a couple hours away from where I grew up. I felt extremely welcome there, as well, because the first thing I saw was this craft activity the students had done with Dim Sum For Everyone!Isn't it neat? The students made their own dim sum cart and filled it with drawings of their favorite foods. And what was right on top? My favorite food!

A great way to end my school visit year and a good omen as I begin writing "Dumpling Days," don't you think?