Sunday Hush

You can get a great sense of the ALA Midwinter bustle from Monica Edinger or Betsy Bird. I’m sitting this one out, and spending the warm drizzly California Sunday in my armchair with the paper and cup of ginger tea.

And the Newbery Committee? Well they are–done. By noon, Boston time, they’ll have delivered their press release to the press office (where they are up nearly all night getting the awards presentation together for your enjoyment). 

But the committee…might be hitting the exhibit floor for the first time, buzzed and exhausted, walking through the crowd carrying an enormous secret. Or, lying down in their hotel room knowing that for the first moment in a very long time, they don’t have to read or think about anything.

I hope they do get some rest, because they’re due probably around 5:30am back at the press office for an early morning group photo shoot, and: to call their authors.  Then, escorted into the press conference (maybe passing the winning publishers on the way in? An exercise in communal poker face), where they will wait until the very very end….for everyone to finally know what they know too: which author’s life has been changed forever with that gold sticker.

The change has already happened.  So: congratulations, to all.  I can’t wait until tomorrow…but there’s also a strange sort of comfort just from knowing that the consensus has taken place.

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