Lots of people are doing wonderful long blogs describing BEA, so I am just giving you a few random highlights from my bookseller adventures, trying to stick to YA type stuff and leaving out a lot serious picture book-type excitement (The walking tour! Peter Sis! Peter McCarty! Brian Selznick! Judy Schachner! Sharon Creech! Robin Preiss Glasser! Sophie Blackall! Mo Willems! I could go on and on):

• THe children's book breakfast was so early I could not figure out how to turn the top of the coffee thingummy so that coffee would come out of it. Dave Barry helped me!
•Libba Bray was a very funny MC for the breakfast and acted out her new book in MIME. We got a teaser chapter!
•I ran into Frank Portman like six times. I think I was beginning to frighten the poor guy.
• Coffee with Melissa de la Cruz, who is just as charming as I thought she'd be.
• Scooting around with Ally Carter and Maryrose Wood and descending on Carolyn Mackler en masse to get her new book, Guyaholic. With cute key chains to match!
• At the ABC dinner, I drank the wine of the bookseller next to me. She was like, um. Where's my wine gone to? And I was like, la la la la, I seem to be drinking some wine, I wonder where yours is? And it was hers! oh dear.
• My shoes hurt so much at the ABC dinner I had to resort to my backup shoes, which fortunately I had stashed in my bag.
• I met lots of people I only know on line! A chair and a tea cozy! (She has a name. It is Liz). Carrie Jones! Jo Knowles! Paula Hyman! So that was fun city.
• I scored: the new Megan Mccafferty. The new Gabrielle Zevin. The new David Levithan/Rachel Cohn. The new Ally Carter. The new Carolyn Mackler. I am a very happy reader right now.

So those are my highlights. I came home with a sore back and blisters and a good education in book publishing, plus some wonderful books.