Storytime Event With Amy Krouse Rosenthal!

Thanks to the fabulous folks at Books Inc., including awesome bookseller and my MFA classmate, Maggie, I got to see Amy Krouse Rosenthal do a storytime reading. It was very fun. Amy Krouse Rosenthal is a very prolific picturebook author whose books are some of my favorites.

Her most recent titles are DUCK! RABBIT! (illus. Tom Lichtenheld, Chronicle Books, 2009), LITTLE OINK, (illus. Jen Corace, Chronicle Books, 2009) and SPOON (illus. Scott Magoon, Hyperion, 2009). She read all three of these for a very excited audience today.

Amy talked a little bit about her love of wordplay. In the pictures posted after the jump, you’ll see her favorite ever palindrome. As for the eternal writing question (”Where do your ideas come from?”), she had this to say:

I love collecting ideas. Whatever you decide to look for, there’s a chance you’ll find it, so I look for ideas. Are ideas everywhere? I think they are.

She also showed visitors a very special book… the copy of LITTLE PEA (illus. Jen Corace, Chronicle Books, 2005) that she made for her kids, way before it ever became a published picturebook. Too cool!

Also in attendance was super-awesome illustrator LeUyen Pham, who’ll be doing a Books Inc. event on May 12th at the Chestnut Street store as well, with her FRECKLEFACE STRAWBERRY (Bloomsbury) author, Julianne Moore. (If you want an autographed, personalized picturebook from this dynamic duo, enter to win one by May 11th on the Kidlit Contest page!)

So, without further ado, click below to see more pictures!

Amy discusses her favorite palindrome, an entire sentence: “Was it Eliot’s toilet I saw?”

Amy gets help from an enthusiastic volunteer as she reads DUCK! RABBIT!

Amy reads LITTLE OINK with a little help from bookseller, Shannon.

A view of the audience at storytime.

Me getting LITTLE OINK and LITTLE HOOT signed.

Maggie, holding BIG SISTER, LITTLE SISTER, illustrator LeUyen Pham and I, holding ALVIN HO. We took some goofy face pictures and some normal ones… someone in this shot might’ve confused which was which.

If you’re in the Bay Area, be sure to come to Books Inc. on Chestnut Street in San Francisco on May 12th to see LeUyen Pham and Julianne Moore. If you live in the Marina neighborhood, bring your family to Books Inc. every Saturday at eleven a.m. for Maggie’s storytime event: Oh My Gosh! Stories.

Also, fun sidenote… yesterday, Chronicle Books announced on Twitter (@ChroncileBooks) that they’d be giving away a copy of DUCK! RABBIT! to the first person who said the magic Twitter word at the reading. Like a good nerd, I won! Never underestimate the importance of Twitter. Social media 2.0 works, people!