Queen's Park was buzzing with people of all ages checking out the various booths, events, and food. From author readings (including one by Margaret Atwood) to live music to games, crafts, and cooking demos, there was something for everyone. I also loved seeing the whole spectrum of people involved in the book business: from authors and illustrators to writers' groups, magazines, publishers, wholesalers, booksellers, and, of course, readers!
The Annick booth was a busy place to be: we enjoyed both introducing our books to new readers and hearing from people who were already familiar with our titles (for example, our Robert Munsch display elicited many happy cries of, "Oh, I remember reading that as a kid!"). It was especially touching to see parents introducing the books they'd loved as kids to their own children.
Along with offering a 20% discount on our books, we also ran our popular String Pull game (photo below), in which kids pull one end of a string and then win books based on the color of the token on the other end. It costs just $1 to play and all proceeds go to this year's Reading Summit (Nov. 11-13).
Ruth Ohi (pictured below) dropped by in the afternoon to sign her books and chat with fans; she especially enjoyed signing her books with cartoon sketches of the child who the book was for!
I've uploaded our photos to our Flickr account, and you can also find more wrap-ups of Word on the Street in Toronto on the following blogs: BlogTO; Another Day, Another Thought... or Two; Talking with Tundra, and Debbie's Blatherings. I'm already looking forward to next year!
