Southern Festival of Books: Part Two

This past weekend I had the opportunity to go to the Southern Festival of Books.  I had such a good time, that I decided to write several posts.  Here is Part I if you want to start from the beginning!

When we left off, I was heading back into the auditorum to hear Mo Willems speak.  I missed the first little bit of his talk because I was waiting in line for Jon Scieszka to sign my book. 

The part I got to see was AWESOME.  Mo read his latest book Knuffle Bunny Free in its entirety. 

 

Here is Mo reading his book Knuffle Bunny Free.  Photo Credit: Brooke Brown.

Listening Mo Willems read his books aloud is simply one of the best things ever.  I LOVE reading Mo's books aloud, but to hear HIM to it is just beyond awesome.  

Why, you ask?  Well, because of this...

 Photo Credit: Brooke Brown

Here Mo is whispering into the Mike...it's the part of the story where Oma and Opa have a plan, and Mo was whispering into the microphone.

And this!

Photo Credit: Brooke Brown

Here Mo is doing a "blech" face after Trixie tries Opa's coffee in the book. 

Sigh.  I love Mo!

Okay, so after he finished his talk, we headed out and waited in line for Mo to sign books.  He had a very long line...but well worth it!

 Photo Credit: Brooke Brown

Here is my dad and I with Mo's extra large Knuffle Bunny he took with him on tour.  Knuffle Bunny made the photo rounds! 

And here is my autographed copy of Knuffle Bunny Free.  The trilogy is now complete!  Thanks Mo for signing my book! 

Next we headed down into capital for our next session, which we missed about half of while waiting in line for Mo Willems.  This session featured Tom Angleburger and Michael Buckley where they talked about the 21st Century Nerd.  I really wished I could have caught it all because it was really neat.   We got there during the Q&A session, where at times I was totally confused...especially with the video game talk and lots of Stars Wars discussion.  But that was okay, it was still really great!

A little bit later, Dad and I headed over to the Youth Stage to learn how to make an Origami Yoda from Tom Angleburger, author of The Strange Case of Origami Yoda.  You can check out my review here.   

Tom is super fun and so great with the kids!  It was a blast watching him juggle, talk about his book and then teach us all how to make a Yoda.  

Here is mine!  Isn't he fun?

Okay, that is enough for now!  Be back later with more!