My Adventures with KA Applegate

[bessiemaemucho.livejournal.com]

You guys, I just met Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant and they were both so delightful!

I'm a librarian and I'm attending this conference for children's & youth librarians, and Katherine Applegate is one of the keynote speakers. Which, obviously, I've been super excited about ever since I got permission from my boss to register for this.

Her speech was so lovely--she talked a lot about how people make connections, and how librarians connect books with readers and authors connect readers with ideas, etc. And she talked a lot about The One and Only Ivan and made basically everyone cry.

Then afterward there was a signing, and I was one of the first people in line. I had a copy of Ivan to get signed for myself and a copy of the reissued Animorphs #1 for my friend Keith (who some of you might know? He used to be one of the people who ran morphz.com like 100 years ago?) Anyway so I handed over my books with their post-its and was basically word-vomiting about how I met Keith because of Animorphs and so great blah blah blah and she was very nice and said how old it made her feel that people who read Animorphs as kids are now actual grownups, which is, in fact, pretty weird.

Then I walked away from the signing table, and looked down at my books... and she'd signed it "To Keith, Morph On! Keith."






LOL

So obviously the first thing I did was take a picture and post it on Keith's Facebook. OBVIOUSLY

Then I tweeted it.

Then I found my friend Abby and got back in line with her to get it re-signed. I spent the entire length of the line giving her a lengthy plot summary of Animorphs.

Then, this time around, Michael Grant was standing next to Katherine, along with their daughter. (During her speech she'd mentioned they were there, but they hadn't been at the table the first time I went through the line.) He was chatting with people waiting them and telling them about how his daughter would only think he was cool if he could get her to meet Johnny Depp, and she was like "Yeah dad, I want to meet Johnny Depp!" But he said he got a chance for her to meet Chris Colfer from Glee which made him KIND OF cool. And then he said that it had been at a book signing (apparently Chris Colfer wrote a book?) and the bookstore co-opted Michael Grant into being like, a bouncer for Chris Colfer's line basically.

Anyway I was like "Hey uh, I know this isn't officially your signing, but is it cool if I ask you to sign this?" and then I brandished the Animorphs book at him.

MG: "Oh, sure, but you have to get Katherine to sign it too."

Me: "Yeah... uh, she kind of already did... but, uh..."

MG (looks at book): "Honey, you signed your name as 'Keith."

KA: :O (seriously she did that)

MG: "Now this book will give you morphing powers."

And then MG and their daughter kind of teased her about it and I was like "No it was my fault, I was totally just babbling about Animorphs while you were trying to write your name!"



She amended it to say "Keith, I'm an idiot! KA Applegate"

SO CUTE.



Then, obviously, I tweeted the picture. And KA tweeted back!!



AHHH!!

BEST.

PS IDK why those photos are sideways, they aren't sideways on my phone. ARGH but I'm still at the conference so not super invested in fixing them right now, sorry guys.