Instagramming ALA 2025 (Part I)

I’m back from the 2025 American Library Association Annual Conference in Philadelphia and I have the pictures to prove it.

First up, my packing situation:

I call my packing style “Zero Options”. You know the boy scout motto “Be Prepared”? I’m kind of the opposite of that. I only pack one set of clothes for each day and if I need anything other than that, I’m screwed. Also, I wore the same pair of shoes for the entire conference. That helped save space.

In the middle of the night, my flight out of Grand Rapids, MI was mysteriously cancelled, so I had to hike on over to Detroit to leave later in the day.

When I arrived at the airport, I learned that there really is a vending machine for everything:

Also, the Detroit airport has some nice art on the walls, courtesy of the Detroit Institute of Arts.

After I got to Philly, I headed straight over to the illustrator event hosted by Brian Biggs and Alyssa Nassner.

I ran into Ben Clanton (Narwhal & Jelly) Rachel Michelle Wilson (How to Pee Your Pants the Right Way), and Elayne Crain (There’s Something Odd About the Babysitter) and took part in some drawing games.

After that I went to a publisher event and had to bring you the Philly skyline at night shot.

And that was Friday! On to Saturday. I woke up early and headed to the convention center.

The last time I was here was during the Midwinter conference in 2014 when I was on the Caldecott committee (and also, apparently, heavily filtering every photo). It was bringing back memories all weekend.

This time around, we had a space to record some episodes of The Yarn podcast.

But I couldn’t hang there too long, because the first thing on the agenda was over on the Real Page-Turner Stage.

I had the pleasure of moderating a panel with all of the 2025 Newbery winners. In the photo below, we have Kate O’Shaughnessy, Chanel Miller, Erin Entrada Kelly, Ruth Behar, and Lesa Cline-Ransome.

What a great group. We recorded the whole thing for The Yarn podcast, and will be putting that out later this month.

After that, I went to the publisher booths. I had a minute to play everyone’s favorite game: “Which Book Has the Most Awards/Stars Sticking Out?”

Here’s one contender:

But wait! Here’s another:

But then I saw this Wimpy Kid throw pillow:

And then I got back to the game, with this very decorated entry:

And then I had to take a picture with the most popular book character in my library for the last couple of years:

And I found the spot where all the ALA ribbons are. People put these on their conference badge to say which groups they are a part of. I was looking to grab a “Dr. Carla Hayden is MY Librarian of Congress”, but they were all taken.

At a Little, Brown event, some of the illustrators were showing their art, including Dan Yaccarino (author/illustrator of the upcoming Piccolo), who had his sketchbook out.

On my Must Do list was to meet Geisel winning author/illustrator Jashar Awan. The guy makes really great books (including one of my 2025 favorites, Every Monday Mabel):

ALA had a booth with all the newest merch, including some hot-off-the-presses READ posters (including one by our new Caldecott Medalist, Rebecca Lee Kunz)

Next up, I interviewed Zeke Peña, who’s making his author illustrator debut this summer with his visually stunning picture book Sundust. He was really great to talk to.

He let me know that he was part of an original art display in the convention center, so I had to stop by.

Then it was time for more Yarn business.

It was a pleasure to talk with author Jasmine Warga about her upcoming book The Unlikely Tale of Chase and Finnegan.

And to end the day, I went over to the Please Touch Museum to attend a Macmillan event with a whole bunch of great authors and illustrators. And ride a carousel.

That’s it for Part I, check back tomorrow for Part II. Peace.

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