2009 National Book Festival

On Saturday, September 26th, we joined what seemed like the rest of the DC metro area on the National Mall for the Library of Congress National Book Festival. We stopped by Borders to pick up a Mercy Watson book for Kate Dicamillo's book signing line and a Steven Kellogg book for his line. We got there right as Kate's time started and Ryan promptly got in that line. It wrapped around four times. I headed off to find the Border's book selling tent to see if there was Pinkerton book. There were so many people in the tent, that a volunteer was guarding the entrance to prevent people to get in. I saw that Steven Kellogg had started signing early and got in his line. Three people from the front, they pulled him for another event. So, I went and got at the beginning of the line for his regular time. Meanwhile, Kate's line had grown to six wraps and her time was up. They decided to extend for another hour. I got Steven to sign my book and headed off to find Ryan. After an hour and 45 minutes of standing in line, they pulled Kate away and said no more. Oh well, at least we got one signed!





In the picture above, you can see part of the crowd. In 2008, they had an estimaed 120,000. I don't think the crowds had diminished this year, and it felt like some of the lines had started the previous year.

We did learn about a new children's serial story being written by all the children's authors who were present this year. You can follow the story here: http://www.read.gov/ It's called the Exquisite Corpse.

Then we headed into the Smithsonian castle for a look at the pile of treasure from the Night at the Museum movie.

Was fun to pick out what everything was. We spotted a Lite Brite, Fonzie's jacket, Ruby slippers, original Nintendo and a whole lot of coins.

After that we walked over to the National Theatre to get our tickets to Jersey Boys and save the ridiculous ticketmaster fees! We're all set for when Nate and Teresa come to visit.