Our First Library Author Visit

A few weeks ago, we got an email from Addendum Books in St. Paul.  They were looking for a school to host a visiting young adult fantasy author, and were we interested?

Yes.  Yes, we were very interested.

We were also immediately impressed with Addendum Books, which we hadn't heard of (they've been in business about a year) but which seemed to be attracting some very high-profile authors:  Holly Black, Jay Asher, Libba Bray, Patrick Ness, Lois Lowry, and many others.  What's unique about Addendum is that it is a young adult bookstore--not a bookstore with a young adult section, not a children's bookstore that carries some young adult titles, but a bookstore (albeit a small one) devoted entirely to young adult literature.  For this reason alone, we were instant fans.

Addendum's visiting author this time was Cinda Williams Chima, author of two young adult fantasy series (The Heir Chronicles and The Seven Realms series).  Cinda would give a presentation about her writing and Addendum would provide books for our students to purchase and for Cinda to sign.  After a couple weeks of emailing back and forth, we had thirty students (mostly ninth graders) ready to participate and Cinda scheduled to come over a Thursday mid-morning lunch break.

The big day arrived.  Lizz and Sean and I had made our first visit to Addendum the evening before, to purchase a couple copies of Cinda's books for the library (one of which would be raffled off to one lucky student during the event).  We spent the morning setting up tables and chairs for the event, and we were surprised to find that we were a little nervous!  Eleven o'clock arrived; Cinda was late!  The students were restless.  Lizz tried to keep them focused while I waited at the door for our author to arrive.  Then she did arrive!  And she plunged right into her presentation and everything was wonderful!  Several kids in the audience were genuine fans of Cinda's work; you could see the excitement on their faces.  The kids asked great questions at the conclusion of Cinda's talk (our favorite query was about killing off your characters, a la Game of Thrones).  And even though the lunch break was next (kids love lunch), several stayed after to talk to Cinda, buy books, and get them signed.

Author visit success!  And it looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship with Addendum Books.