And she was good enough to help me back up, too.

Instant karma whacked me upside the head at the end of last month when the July-August issue of the Horn Book Magazine, wherein I take ALSC to task for demanding too much secrecy around its Newbery and Caldecott deliberations, was mailed a full week early, thus spoiling the entirely justifiable secret of just what Kate DiCamillo and Brian Floca were going to say in their Newbery and Caldecott speeches. I was–AM–mortified: while we told the mailing house to hold this issue a week later than usual, apparently we did not stress strongly enough to them just why we wanted it embargoed, and I guess they thought they were doing us a favor. Kate and Brian were very good sports–see above for our Ambassador’s gracious acceptance of my apology. So to them particularly but to all in general: SORRY!

with Kirkpatrick Hill

Otherwise I had some lively conversations about the editorial, and some less lively ones about the Common Core State Standards. (Do the CCSS have any fans left? Marc?)  Macmillan gave a very nice lunch for the Scott O’Dell committee and this year’s winner Kirkpatrick Hill, who’s something of a character who knows she’s something of a character, which makes her a little dangerous but a lot of fun. Kind of like my ALA in general.

But tell me we don’t have to go to Las Vegas again. Please?