Jeffery Panther Attends Decatur Book Festival

Jeffery and Mrs. Dean ready to leave school Friday afternoon. Heading to the Decatur Book Festival Saturday morning.

​Saturday morning, Jeffery and I set out for our fabulous weekend. I have attended the Decatur Book Festival for the past 9 years. This was Jeffery's first trip. He was so excited when we left the school Friday evening. 
We stayed  with my daughter, Kathryn because she lives a block from where it all happens in Decatur. 

​They shut down the Decatur streets downtown and put tents down the middle of the streets. There are all kinds of books and book related materials all over the city.  I found a lot of cool books for the library as well as prizes for readers!

Saturday morning we hit the town. We checked out all of the booths that had cool looking stuff and then we started meeting authors. There were a lot of authors at this festival. We especially loved the children's books authors.
Now for some of the pictures of Jeffery with a few of the authors he was anxious to meet!

Jeffery has his copy of Love That Dog by Sharon Creech. We are waiting to hear her talk.

Kathryn and Jeffery listened very carefully while the authors spoke. Jeffery loved hearing about how they became authors and how they come up with ideas. I don't think he moved or wiggled ONCE!

Next we listened to Jennifer Holm (center) and Sara Pennypacker (right). Jennifer Holm wrote one of our favorite books, The Fourteenth Goldfish (and many other books). Sara Pennypacker is best known for Clementine books.

Sharon Creech is on the right. She is being interviewed by another author. She told us that she loves to write free verse.

Sharon Creech, Jeffery Panther and me! Ms. Creech signed a copy of her new book, Moo to the students of Jefferson Parkway!

We watched a very funny drawing competition between Tony DiTerlizzi and Dan Santat. They even let kids come up to draw. Jeffery was too shy to volunteer.

During the discussion Sara Pennypacker told the audience that she thought Clementine needed a bit of privacy since we've read 7 books about Clementine and all of the problems she faced as a third grader. One day she may write about Clementine again but Clementine would be older than in the original 7 books. She has started a NEW series about a boy named Waylon.  

Jeffery took a peek at Tony DiTerlizzi and Dan Santat as they signed books.

When I introduced Sara Pennypacker and Jennifer Holm to Jeffery, Jennifer Holm asked if they could have their picture made with Jeffery. They LOVED meeting him. It looks like Jeffery is about to grab Clementine from Ms. Pennypacker!

Finally Sara Pennypacker and Jennifer Holm come in the room for their signing! Jeffery was so excited to meet them.

It was a LONG day and Jeffery just wanted to chill at Kathryn's apartment. Elf, Kathryn's cat, had some nice long conversations with Jeffery. After all they are BOTH cats! (Notice the Tardis blanket. It's one of Jeffery's favorites... Elf loves it too... and so do I!)