Jen Thiele's NWCB Experience

I would like to extend a thank you to the Nicolet Federated Library System, not only for providing an opportunity to go to the children’s book conference in Cable, Wisconsin, but also for helping me realize the dream I’ve had since I was just a young librarian starting out in the world. The dream that involved meeting Nancy Pearl, the most famous librarian of all time.

It happened like this. I woke up early and decided to take advantage of the free continental breakfast offered in the lobby. I grabbed my blueberry muffin and a cup of coffee and headed back to my room to get my agenda for the day. I opened the door to the hallway of rooms and gasped! Standing there, no more than two feet away from me was the fabulous Nancy Pearl. I was taken aback, juggled my steaming cup of coffee and smiled at her, a little too enthusiastically. Soon enough, she realized that this was simply a fan.- a librarian who had read all of her books, saw her speak every time she came to Wisconsin, and allowed each one of her three babies to chew on her action figure when they were teething. A few words were exchanged, and I walked away happy, knowing that this conference was already one of the best ones I’ve been to this year.

Of course, the Nancy Pearl exchange wasn’t the only thing fantastic about this conference. I was also able to find out the 2009 finalists for the CCBC, and sit in three breakout sessions on storytelling for young adults and children. Several local authors were available to discuss how they incorporated history, dialog and real life research into their novels. My favorite speaker by far was Katie McCay, a former teacher who decided one day to be a full-time writer.

After seeing Katie speak I was able to attend a workshop given by John Coy, who has written several books for the reluctant reader. He gears many of his stories towards boys, mostly because preteen/teen boys are the toughest population to target. He shared his experience writing his books, and how closely he worked with kids in getting active feedback in background and design.

The last breakout session was a session on history, and incorporating it into a book. Loretta Ellsworth had written several historical novels, and discussed how she came up with her ideas and did her research.

Overall, I do believe that the conference in Cable was a great experience—both for the writer and librarian. If I have an opportunity in the future I would love to go back. Only next time, I’m dragging along another librarian. Six hours is an eternity in a car by yourself. :)