TLA Conference & Librarian Humor!

T.L.A.  Love those 3 letters! For those of you non-Texas librarians, TLA is the Texas Library Association, and I just returned from our annual conference. This year it was in Houston and several librarians from my school district made the trek for 4 days of all out book-mania fun!

This year was especially exciting because

I won a prize! 

Sorry for shouting at you, but I never win anything, and this year I won a big fabulous basket of books!

Yay! I am a winner!

Look at all those books!

The basket was filled with next year's Texas Bluebonnet Award nominees. Get ready for more shouting...

I won 20 books! 

Approximate value of $300! 

Unbelievable! 

Wanna know something else wonderful about TLA? We get to meet great authors! This year's Bluebonnet Award winner was The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger. It's a funny, well-written book that really struck a chord with the 3rd-6th graders across the state of Texas who participated in the Bluebonnet Award program. I got to hear Tom Angleberger speak at the Bluebonnet Author Session and he is incredibly talented and entertaining.

Tom Angleberger autographed copies of his book for my students!

In addition to meeting authors and illustrators, there's all kinds of STUFF available for purchase at the conference. I came home with tons of puppets, book bags, props, bookmarks, posters, reading promotions, light-up pens, and books. I carpooled with two other librarians and we must have had a million bags between us!

Another reason I love to go to TLA's annual conference is that I get to stay in a hotel. Is that weird? Am I the only one who feels this way? I can't help it--I just love the whole hotel experience. Plus, I get to room with other librarians and we have so much fun talking shop! One of my librarian friends surprised us with this crazy gag gift that you'll have to scroll far down the page to see.

BEFORE YOU SCROLL DOWN: I don't think the gag gift picture is inappropriate, but my husband couldn't believe I wanted to post it. Proceed with caution, and a sense of humor!

And no, my friend did not buy these at the conference, but I bet they'd be top-selling items there! Well, time to wrap things up. That's it for now, or better yet, you have reached The End!

~Swersty