Anticipating IRA

Although there is much happening between now and then (including this Cambridge Science Festival presentation tomorrow … do come if you can!), I am gearing up for next week’s International Reading Association Conference in Atlanta, Georgia.

The highlight, for me, will be accepting the 2008 IRA Children’s and Young Adult Book Award (Intermediate Nonfiction category) at the Young Adult Literature Luncheon on Tuesday. I am thrilled and honored and the tiniest bit overwhelmed at the very idea. And, of course, I am very, very grateful to everyone at the IRA and at Houghton Mifflin Company. Absolutely everyone.

There are other moments I am excited about, too: traveling back and forth from Atlanta with a Houghton pal, dinner with colleagues, signing books in the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt booth (#1917 at 3pm on Tuesday … please stop by!), reading from TRACKING TRASH in public (for the first time … Ack!), and catching up with writer friends I hardly ever get to see.

Thinking about it all makes me giddy and reminds me of the night before a childhood trip to Disney World: my sister and I huddled in bed that night and whispered about the incredible things we knew were in store and we were both sleepless with excitement and feverish with worry that our dream trip would somehow, Somehow, be cancelled. It’s a deliciously scary kind of feeling and I am enjoying it as much now as I did then …

** I just edited this to include the proper signing information … I’ll be in the HMH booth on TUESDAY at 3pm. Sorry for the typo. And thank you, Greg, for helping me realize the mistake!**