All Eyes, Ears, and Noses on ALA 2023

Another ALA has come and gone. Almost 10,000 attendees (and another 6,000 exhibitors, artists, and staff) gathered in Chicago to celebrate the power of books, to honor the librarians bringing these books to students, and to discover new books for the fall and beyond. The show this year was buzzing with a renewed vigor, with many people gathering to support books and to also learn how to combat book banning across the country.

Read on for more highlights and images from the conference.

The Rainbow Fish was thrilled to be back at ALA for another year. He wants to thank everyone who lined up and waited for him for a photo-op!

Speaking of characters in our booth, we had a few appearances from a rhinoceros throughout the weekend. . .in celebration of our new fall title, Ludwig and the Rhinoceros!

Author Baptiste Paul and illustrator Jacqueline Alcántara signed books in a marathon event, meeting 100 fans of their newest title Climb On! and their backlist gem The Field. Thank you to everyone who came by to meet the artists!

We enjoyed the Caldecott Banquet on Sunday evening, which celebrated the work of Doug Salati, Amina Luqman-Dawson, and James E. Ransome, along with many honor winners. We had such lovely guests in Junko Yokota, Executive Director of USBBY; Wendy Stephens, president-elect of USBBY; Marianne Martens, Professor, School of Information, Kent State University; Claudia Söffner, International Youth Library Foundation; Baptiste Paul and his daughter Soleil, and Jacqueline Alcántara. The theme of the evening was accessibility of books and the freedom to read.

Thank you for an amazing in-person event! We are already dreaming of ALA 2024.