The big tour is over, although I’m not home yet — I’m in sunny Palm Beach, Florida, meeting with some wonderful kids as part of April is for Authors — and I’m feeling the mix of sadness, weariness, and wistful joy that comes after the run of a play (or after a delicious and way-too-huge meal). I miss my fellow Endangered Authors and our diabolically smarmy game show host already.  Sigh.

During our final few days, we had a fabulous time with the kids at Hollin Meadows Elementary and Mt. Vernon Community School in Virginia, at Meadowside School and Abraham Pierson School in Connecticut, and at C.H. Bullock Elementary and Ridgewood Avenue School in New Jersey. Huge, HUGE thanks to the booksellers at Hooray for Books! in Alexandria, VA, R.J. Julia in Madison, CT, and Watchung Booksellers in Montclair, NJ.  (Get your signed copies at these locations now, Wereworld/Chronicles of Egg/Grimm/Books of Elsewhere readers!)

And now, without further ado, here are Jacqueline West’s Completely Unofficial First-Ever Endangered Authors Tour Awards…

Best chai: Page & Palette in Fairhope, Alabama. (Oh my god.  And there’s more than one kind.)

Best school wildlife: The tiny chameleons skittering through the grounds at Carver Middle School, Miami.  Adorable.

Best dressed: Team West at Palmer Trinity.

Most memorable student conversation: With Anastasia at Campbell County Middle School, who asked, ‘Have you ever had anyone tell you that you couldn’t write because of who you are?’ and then shared her own story with us.

Best comeback to host Holden A. Grudge’s snarkiness: 6th-grader Miguel at Palmer Trinity, who said, ‘This is the first time I’ve met a Holden, and I would have expected you to have the last name Caulfield, but instead you are just a phony.’ Even Holden was rendered temporarily speechless, but he promised Miguel that he would email his own comeback — when he thought of it — to ‘Miguel@meankid.com.’

Best beer list: Brick Store Pub, Decatur, Georgia.  Overwhelmingly awesome.

(Adam Gidwitz, Peter McNerney, Geoff Rodkey, powerhouse bookseller Diane Capriola of Little Shop of Stories, marvelous YA author Terra Elan McVoy, and Curtis Jobling, over a barrel.  Ha.)

Best bathroom: Little Shop of Stories (complete with The Books of Elsewhere poster by the sink.)

Best tale of a school visit gone wrong: Curtis, hands down.  I can’t repeat it here, but the other four of us laughed so hard we hurt ourselves.

Best photo prop: West University Elementary, Houston.

(Geoff, Curtis, and Adam all live in a yellow submarine.)

Best celebrity sighting: The entire current lineup of Styx in our Chicago baggage claim.  One of them was smoking an electronic cigarette.  Middle-aged rebellion.

Most coma-inducing meal: This one.

(At Gino’s East, Chicago.)

Best kiss: From service dog Peanut, at Oak Terrace Elementary. 

Most brilliant blog: Geoff Rodkey. This entry in particular.

Favorite Hotel: The Warwick, NYC.  Schmancy.  Hanging out there with my dear friend Emily (see her incredible work at Haptic Lab) made it even better.

Best Holden A. Grudge book pitch: It’s tough to narrow it down, but it might have been the peacock with the bacon tail, or the rainbow that became a boy with five differently colorful personalities, or the talking mountain of spaghetti and the German mozzarella mountaineer…  (Please head over to the Wereworld Books Facebook page and see several of them for yourself –check out the two from April 17th in particular; you might hear me crying in the background–and if you’re in New York, go see Peter’s weekly improv show, Trike, at Magnet Theater, and know that I am envious of you.)

Two more sleeps, and I’ll be home.

It’s the end of another exciting/exhausting week on the road!  The “Endangered Authors” show is running like a smooth and bookish circus: We pile out of the minivan, snap the set together, talk and laugh with kids, and zoom away again, leaving the scent of Sharpies in our wake.  For another (and another) perspective on the tour, check out this review in Examiner.com (http://www.examiner.com/article/endangered-author-tour-with-jobling-rodkey-west-and-gidwitz) and this blog by a teacher at Carver Middle School, Miami (http://byrdonbooks.wordpress.com/2013/04/14/ya-authors-gidwitz-jobling-rodkey-and-west-are-on-the-endangered-authors-tour-and-it-is-awesome/).  Thanks for spreading the word, Pamela and Janas!

This was my fifth visit to Texas in two years — the Lone Star state has been awfully good to me — and we had a great time in Houston and Austin on Monday and Tuesday.  Thanks again to everyone at West University Elementary, Bunker Hill Elementary, Mills Elementary, Kiker Elementary, and to the booksellers at Blue Willow Bookshop (where, by the way, signed copies of our books are currently in stock), and to the fabulous folks at Perma-bound.

(A slew of signed books at West University Elementary)

Then it was off to Chicago, where torrential rain caused some crazy flooding, turning roads into rivers, schoolyards into swamps, and cemeteries into zombie aquariums…or so we imagined.  Dozens of schools were forced to close, including Hester Junior High, where we were supposed to stop on Thursday.  [Students/staff at Hester JHS: We’re sorry we missed you. If you’d like to arrange an email interview, or get some signed bookplates, or schedule a future in-person visit with me, please get in touch any time.]  To everybody at Lincoln Middle School, Cossitt Middle School, Heritage Middle School, Lincolnwood School, and Oak Terrace School: You were awesome.

Here’s the crowd at Lincolnwood on Friday morning, making us feel welcome (and slightly deaf):

Chicago is a wonderland of indie booksellers.  To find signed copies of The Books of Elsewhere, The Chronicles of Egg, Wereworld, and A Tale Dark and Grimm, visit The Book Stall in Winnetka (where Robert can answer all of your kids’ lit questions), Magic Tree Bookstore in Oak Park (thanks again for braving the deluge, Rosie!), and Anderson’s in Naperville.

While the rest of the troupe flew home to NYC for some family-hugging and underwear-washing, Curtis and I headed on to DC.  We spent today visiting TWELVE local bookstores to sign books (it was supposed to be THIRTEEN, but we were just a few minutes too late for the downtown B&N), so for a limited time, you can find signed copies of Wereworld and The Books of Elsewhere at almost every DC-area Barnes & Noble, at Books-A-Million in McLean and at Dupont Circle, and at the practically perfect Politics & Prose Bookstore.

Here’s the staff picks display at the Rockville, Maryland Barnes & Noble, which made me very happy:

(Not staged, I swear)

And here’s famous author Curtis Jobling in the children’s section at Politics & Prose:

And lastly, here’s some student art from Lincolnwood Elementary:

“Read Forever.” Good advice.

Hey, everybody!

We’re wrapping up our first week of traveling, school-visiting, and book signing.  Things have been marvelous all around, although I’m starting to feel a bit loopy and disoriented. (This morning, I couldn’t find my glasses, my phone, or the buzzing alarm clock, and I spent several seconds wondering where on earth I was and whether I was supposed to be asleep there before I found my glasses, saw palm trees out the window, and remembered that I was in my very own hotel room in Miami.)  Geoff Rodkey and Curtis Jobling are top blokes, as Curtis himself might say, and they’ve both been blogging about the tour.  You can read their delightful observations here and here; I’m feeling too out of it for a full-scale recap.  Maybe later.  For now: Pictures!!!

Watching Curtis mock One Direction and sparkly vampires at the Davis Academy in Atlanta, Georgia

Chatting with readers at the Davis Academy

Assembling the crazy collapsible set

The crowd at St. Thomas More School in Decatur, Georgia

Curtis enthusiastically signing books at Page & Palette between school visits in Fairhope, Alabama

Speaking of signed books, you can now find signed copies of all four of our series (A Tale Dark and Grimm, The Chronicles of Egg, Wereworld, and The Books of Elsewhere) at the following fantastic independent bookstores:
– Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Cincinnati, OH
– Little Shop of Stories, Decatur, GA
– Page & Palette, Fairhope, AL
– Books & Books, Coral Gables, FL

These are the kind of bookstores that give me hope for the future.  Huge, HUGE thanks to all of the booksellers who have hosted us, and who have connected us to these amazing schools:

– Campbell County Middle School, Alexandria, KY
– Davis Academy, Atlanta, GA
– St. Thomas More School, Decatur, GA
– Fairhope Intermediate School, Fairhope, AL
– J. Larry Newton School, Fairhope, AL
– Carver Middle School, Coral Gables, FL

The enthusiasm, insight, and warmth of the kids at each of these stops has blown us away. Palmer Trinity School and Gator Run Elementary: We’ll see you tomorrow!

In Minnesota, there’s an April snowstorm.  In Miami, there’s an orchid in my drink.

I leave on Sunday morning for the big Endangered Authors II tour, and I’ve just had time to unpack my New Orleans luggage, send the latest revision of Volume Five off to my editor, and get my carefully cleaned coat re-covered with Brom hair.  New Orleans at Easter was lively and lovely and full of amazing hats.  We caught beads at Easter parades, walked the Quarter, took a streetcar to the Garden District, and ate a shameful amount of pastry.

Here, in panoramic West-vision:

               Ryan’s view                                                            My view

     Pere Antoine Alley            Jackson Square                  Lafayette Cemetery

This year’s Endangered Authors Tour includes the Story Pirates, Adam Gidwitz (A Tale Dark and Grimm), Geoff Rodkey (The Chronicles of Egg), and Curtis Jobling (Wereworld)… and me.  I’m excited to be hitting the road with them, seeing new parts of the country (hello, Connecticut!), and meeting young readers.  It looks like all of our events this time will be school visits—in other words, not open to the general public—but we will be signing stock at local bookstores in each location, so if you’re looking for signed copies, check with your indie booksellers!  I’ll post a list of stores where we’ve signed once the tour is complete.  Also, a few last-minute schedule changes/additions are possible — I pre-apologize for any mistakes.

Here we go:

April 8: Alexandria, KY (Campbell County School)

April 9: Atlanta/Decatur, GA (Davis Academy, St. Thomas More School)

April 10: Fairhope, AL (Fairhope Intermediate School, J. Larry Newton School)

April 11: Coral Gables, FL (Carver Middle School)

April 12: Palmetto Bay/Weston, FL (Palmer Trinity School, Gator Run Elementary)

April 14: Stock signing in Houston, TX

April 15: Houston, TX (West University Elementary, Bunker Hill Elementary)

April 16: Austin, TX (Mills Elementary, Kiker Elementary)

April 17: Oak Park, IL (Lincoln Middle School, Cossitt Middle School)

April 18: Oak Park, IL (Heritage Middle School, Hester Junior High School)

April 19: Evanston/Highwood, IL (Lincolnwood School, Oak Terrace School)

April 21: Stock signing in Alexandria, VA/Washington DC

April 22: Alexandria, VA (Hollin Meadows Elementary, Mt. Vernon Community School)

April 23: Milford/Clinton, CT (Meadowside School, Abraham Pierson School)

April 24: Montclair/Glen Ridge, NJ (Charles H. Bullock Elementary, Ridgewood Avenue School)

And THEN I head alone to Palm Beach, Florida for April is for Authors.  On April 26, I’ll be visiting with the kids at Morikami Park Elementary, and on Saturday, April 27, I’ll be speaking, reading, and signing books at Palm Beach Gardens High School for the April is for Authors festival.  This is a free public event, so come down and say hello!  A schedule of author events will be posted on the festival website any day now.

April 28: Come home.  Get covered in dog slobber.  Sleep.