ALA Wrap-Up

Today's post is from Annick's production manager, Heather Davies, who attended ALA this year along with sales and rights manager Gayna Theophilus.

From June 24–27, Annick attended the American Library Association’s Annual Conference in New Orleans. The Louisiana heat was something else for this Canadian, but New Orleans is beautiful and couldn’t have been more welcoming.

Many of the scheduled seminars were very popular, with standing-room-only crowds. Despite arriving 20 minutes early, I couldn’t even get in the door for “Ebooks: Has Their Time Come?” Having learned my lesson, I arrived half an hour early for “Picture Books Go Digital” which was very interesting and sparked a lot of participation from the audience.

Visitors checking out Annick Press books at ALA

With attendance figures topping 20,000, booth traffic was steady. Visitors to our booth were engaged and interested and, on the whole, quite familiar with many of our titles. Many, many reviewers and committee members came by to make sure they were on our mailing list and getting our books.

There were lots of positive comments about Chanda’s Secrets, and lots of excitement upon hearing about the movie, Life, Above All, which comes out this month. Many people who loved Fatty Legs were very excited about the sequel, A Stranger at Home. The 50 Questions series got plenty of attention, as did the Jobs in History titles. And clearly, the Chicken, Pig, Cow books are well-loved.

I'll wrap up with my two favorite comments:
One visitor to her companion in the next booth: “Hey, they’re Canadian!”
Me: “Is that good or bad?”
Visitor: “It’s great – Canadian publishers have much better quality!”

And:
New Orleans native: “You’re here with the librarians?”
Me: “Yes.”
New Orleans native: “Oh! We love the librarians!” (ALA was the first major conference in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.)

Chicago, Chicago, That Wonderful Town!

What could be better than Chicago in the summertime? That’s what thousands of librarians and teachers must have asked themselves before setting out for the 2009 ALA Annual Conference. (Below: Katie sets up our booth.)

The Annick booth was a busy place as people stopped by to see what was new. It was great to hear so many say that they had a number of Annick books in their collections. We also heard many comment on how innovative our titles are, and how they look forward to getting our catalog. Our featured titles for the fall—Adventures on the Ancient Silk Road, The Kids @ the Crossroads series, and Camp Fossil Eyes—attracted a lot of attention. And the fortune cookies we gave away to promote The Chinese Thought of It were a big hit.

Backlist titles got a lot of attention, too—both the Little Black Book for Boys and the Little Black Book for Girlz drew enthusiastic responses and generated lots of discussion around the booth for their frank and honest approach to often controversial subject matter. But it wasn’t all work. We managed to take in an architectural tour of the fabulous Chicago skyline, explore the Magnificent Mile, and had some great meals. We’re looking forward to seeing everyone again in Boston for the Midwinter Meeting.

For more photos, check out our ALA 2009 album on Flickr.

And the Winner is...

At the recent ALA Annual Meeting in Anaheim, Annick Press held a draw to commemorate the upcoming publication of The Bite of the Mango, a memoir by Mariatu Kamara written with Susan McClelland. A victim of the civil war in her native Sierra Leone, Mariatu tells the astonishing story of her experience at the hands of rebel soldiers and its aftermath. Now living in Toronto, Mariatu has been named a UNICEF Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict.

The winner of the ALA draw is Linda Adams, in whose name a $100 donation has been made by Annick Press to UNICEF. Linda will also receive a copy of The Bite of the Mango.


Linda is the Young Adult Coordinator at the San Bernardino (California) Public Library. She has three children and two grandsons, both under a year old. In her “spare time,” she works with Cartoonists across America, a group which promotes literacy around the world, using art and humor.

Thank you to all who participated in the draw.