Y'ALLWEST 2017

April was like a month-long feast for book festivals! The weekend after the LA Times Festival of Books, I went down to Santa Monica for Y'ALLWEST. It's an all-things YA festival and tons of fun. 

Joined by some fellow book nerds, we headed down to the Friday night preview -- which was basically just an extended book signing. If I had known that, we might not have gone, but it was still fun. My daughter is a huge fan of Shannon & Dean Hale's Princess in Black series and so I was excited to get signed copies for her. When I told the Hales they were signing for my daughter Nora, Shannon told me that she named Princess Magnolia after her own daughter, Magnolia...who originally was to be named Nora! 

No lie, there were so many panels/signings/giveaways that I wanted to attend Saturday that I wound up creating an hour by hour spreadsheet so I wouldn't miss anything. My husband totally made fun of my OCD but I'm well aware of my nerd status. But! It was immensely satisfying to see other proud booknerds carrying around their own (color-coded!) spreadsheets the day of.

I was able to snag a ticket to go to a special Leigh Bardugo signing of Wonder Woman: Warbringer! I was so excited to meet the creator of Kaz and Inej and Nina and Matthais... Leigh was so nice and I can't wait to read her latest.

At LATFoB I spent most of my time attending panels, but at Y'ALLWEST it was all about the signings and giveaways. I did go to a few panels, including this one with Ally Condie, Lilliam Rivera, Jennifer Niven, Benjamin Alire Saenz, and Angie Thomas. While they were all interesting and well-spoken, we all know I was only there to see the fabulous Angie Thomas and I was happy to have her sign copies of The Hate You Give afterwards.

Highlights of the panel include Benjamin Alire Saenz serenading the crowd with "Summertime" when asked what song they would pick for karaoke and it came as no surprise that Angie Thomas picked a combo of Beyoncé and Tupac for her favorite famous persons ("Can't you see me at a signing with a wind machine?").

And then there was the BIG reason I went down to Y'ALLWEST: Megan Whalen Turner!! Well since it's been SEVEN years since we last had a new MWT, you know I was not going to miss out on that opportunity! 

I met up with my friend, the fabulous Maggie of @treatyoshelf and we enjoyed her panel with Alex London, Cassandra Clare, Danielle Paige, Daniel José Older, and Zoraida Cordova. 

During the panel, we both agreed that Daniel José Older needs to start doing audio book narrations or something, because hot dog! I could listen to him allll day! 

 I came home with sooo many books and swag! Most of these I'm super excited to start reading (Hello, Words in Deep Blue and Jane, Unlimited! Although boo for waiting in line for the newest Stephanie Perkins only to find out it was only a teaser!). It turned out to be an exceptional day, full of good books and meeting lots of super nice book enthusiasts. I'm so glad I went and can't wait to attend next year too.