A Pirate's Life by Salina Yoon

I just got home a few hours ago from Los Angeles, where I dragged E and L to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. It was my first time, and I figured I had to make an effort to go at some point for a few reasons. One is that it is simply the largest book festival of its kind, and I have heard nothing but amazing things about it. The other was that I wanted to scope it out to decide if it was something Shen’s Books would want to get a booth at in the future.

While I was there, I stopped by to say hello to Rebecca Grose, a children’s book publicist I worked with last year. She was helping out her friend Salina Yoon’s booth, so and when I arrived, Rebecca introduced me to her. Salina’s booth was filled with colorful board books and picture books that she had written and illustrated herself. Even though they were published by Simon & Schuster and Penguin, Salina decided to buy a booth at the festival herself to do further promotion. Wow, are some authors dedicated!

I asked how sales were going, and Salina pointed to a stack of books on the end of a table, ten or fifteen copies of A Pirate’s Life. “I thought I had run out of those!” she exclaimed. “We were down to two yesterday afternoon, and I didn’t think I had brought any more. When I overheard a customer ask if there were any more of them, I said, ‘I’ll take one!’ and the customer grabbed the other one!”

“Well,” I said, “pirate books are big this year. I just saw a huge line for David Shannon signing How I Became a Pirate.” Everyone nodded sagely.

And then it was time to move on. I promised to keep in touch with Rebecca, and Salina urged me to email her if I had any questions about the festival. Again, again, I marvel at the truly kind and friendly people who populate our children’s book industry.

A Pirate's Life by Salina Yoon

Tags: LA Times Book Festival Rebecca Grose pirates Salina Yoon