ORANGE COUNTY CHILDREN'S BOOK FESTIVAL

So the fabulous Mrs. Warburton is back in the old country (NYC) for some work and I've got the vikings for the weekend. So what am I to do with them?

How about taking them to the Orange County Childrens Book Festival?

Being new to the area, I had no idea this was even going on! But fortunately, sooper recent sooper pal Dan Santat mentioned on Facebook that he was gonna be there. So I looked into it, saw a lot of stuff for the kids to do, and decided to make the drive down to Orange County.

And what a SCORE!

Right there at the entrance was a Thomas the Tank Engine train table along with a whole bunch of antique train set-ups. Now if you have kids, especially boys, you know that this will keep the kids busy for a LOAD of time. The maniacs loved it so much, (especially the free blank boxcar they were giving out to color) that I thought we'd never get past the entrance.

Then we heard about the free bouncy castle.

And the free kiddie train ride around Orange Coast College.

And the soccer playing dog. (No... I'm serious.)

Dude... this books festival RULED.

And of course we stopped by Mr. Santat's booth to say hey:


He was sooper triple busy sellin' and signin' his wares-- books, prints, etc etc.
And I traded him a copy of NO for his GUILD OF GENIUSES... which rocks pretty hard.


And while I was talking to Dan, my son Parker happened to see a book that his Kindergarten teacher reads in class: MISS BINDERGARTEN GETS READY FOR KINDERGARTEN. So he made sure to run over and meet the illustrator, Ashley Wolff. who was nice enough to sign a copy for him:


He also insisted we give her a copy of NO, which he insisted on signing as well!

All in all, a rockin' time in Orange County, CA. Hopefully next year I'll be there to do a reading and sign some books!