San Jose pictures

Candlewick Press put together a 5-city book tour to promote Henry Aaron's Dream, made up of 5 separate trips. I just went to San Jose, and I'll be going to San Antonio/Dallas, Orlando, Atlanta, and Cooperstown.

Here are a few pictures from my trip to San Jose.

My first night there, I did a presentation at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library in San Jose, as part of an exhibit called Pride and Passion: The African-American Baseball Experience. Here's a picture of part of the exhibit:


The next day I did a presentation for 400 3rd, 4th and 5th graders, then a signing at Hicklebee's, which is an awesome independent children's bookstore. Check out this great display they set up right inside the entrance:

After my signing, they asked me to find a spot anywhere on the walls or doors and sign it. Looking around thye room, I found signitures and drawings by pretty much every author and illustrator you can think of. Drawing a picture on a wall with a sharpie is a little tricky, and I messed up a bit on the face, but here's what I did:





Notice the door to the left of my picture. See anyone you recognize?




That night I had a delicious dinner with some Candlewick people and fellow Candlewick author Laura Amy Schlitz, then we all headed over to the author reception at the ABA Winter Institute, where Laura and I signed copies of our new books and met hundreds of booksellers. It was a pretty amazing event.







The next morning I tagged along with Lura Amy Schlitz and her editor (and my editor on Lady Liberty: A Biography) Mary Lee Donovan, for Laura's stock signing at Hicklebee's. It was such a fun place, I wanted to go back and wander around a bit. I was delighted to see that the display of my books was still there (I thought maybe they'd take it down as soon as my signing was over).



After Laura's signing, we had lunch with a group of librarians, then the three of us (Laura, Mary Lee and I) took a tour of the Winchester Mystery House, which was a very strange place. Long story, but basically the house's owner was instructed by ghosts that she needed to keep building the house and never stop, so that's what she did. Construction continued, 24 hours a day for 38 years, until she passed away. A sad story, really, but an interesting place.



Not sure if they always look like this, but the clouds in San Jose were amazing.


That evening, we had dinner with a great bunch of booksellers, then the next morning I headed back to Maine.

Next trip: Orlando.