When smart people collide

Yesterday I had the chance to have dinner with the fellow members of the Child_Lit listserv. This type of evening means that a normal joe schmoe like myself gets to rub shoulders with authors, editors, and various glittering names found in the world of children's literature. I could gossip about what I learned. The hot picks coming from Scholastic and Random House, for example. Instead, I think I'll just pick the two moments that stick best in my brain. As you can tell, these had virtually nothing to do with the evening itself. I'm easy to distract.

Before the dinner a co-worker and I bummed around the Scholastic gift shop, just down the street from where we would be eating. And sitting on a shelf, merry as you please, was a DVD of
The Thief Lord. Remember how they were going to make a movie out of The Thief Lord? Ever wondered what happened with that? Well apparently FOX decided to forgo the whole "theatrical release" business and just ship that puppy straight to DVD. Boy, I bet it's a winner!

Anywho, the second interesting thing I learned was on a strictly personal level. But in a weird way it does refer to children's literature. An editor with Random House attended the gathering. In his spare time, he happens to be a drummer for the child-lit friendly named band, "Mr. MacGregor". Aside from the obscure "My Pocket Zoo", "Mr. MacGregor" is the only band I've ever seen perform in New York. This is because I know the lead singer. Prior to this evening I had no idea that the editor and the drummer were one and the same. An odd coincidence to say the least.

Other than that, the only things I can recall is that several people told me how wonderful the YA novel
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist is. Tulane discussion started us off and then we moved into other territory. And everyone there who had read The Looking Glass Wars was equally disappointed in it. Fun!