katherine paterson tea

Cutie Patooties: Sara Lewis Holmes, Liz Scanlon, and Laura Purdie Salas.

Lucky for me, writer friend Maha Addasi invited me along to a special tea party given in honor of Katherine Paterson, our National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. The gathering of Vermont College of Fine Arts students, alumni, teachers and friends (a mix of editors, librarians, agents, authors, artists) was held at the gorgeous period home of Tami Lewis Brown in Georgetown on Saturday afternoon.

photo of Maha from my 2008 interview with her.

Blame the heat, or the standing room only crowd, or being awestruck and starstruck all at once, but I forgot to take Maha’s picture! You may remember my interviewing her back in 2008, when her first picture book, The White Nights of Ramadan, was published. You may also recall that she was just starting her MFA work at VC back then in addition to raising her four children. Happy to say, very proud to report, that Maha is graduating next month! AND, her second picture book, Time to Pray, is coming out in September! Can you say the word, "Superwoman"? GO, MAHA!

Tami’s house is simply beautiful, one of the oldest in Georgetown. It was another one of those hot, humid, dog-panting Washington D.C. summer days, but the people there were cool, cool, cool.

We got there a little early, so I was able to scope out the food. Out on the brick patio, the all-important drinks table, with iced tea, lemonade, and cucumber water! Icy cold and refreshing.

An enticing variety of tea sandwiches (love the little croissants):

A dessert table with little chocolate mousses and fresh fruit:

And in the dining room, some beautiful cheeses and veggies:

Oh, you’d like to know who was there? Wow. Every time I turned around, I spotted someone I had met online and/or admired from afar. Katherine Paterson was kind, gracious, and so down-to-earth — but I still had to pinch myself to believe it was really her standing just a few feet away.

M.T. Anderson and David Macinnis Gill behind Katherine.

It was definitely a kick meeting some of the Through the Tollbooth authors, since I’m a big fan of their blog: Sarah Sullivan, Helen Hemphill, Sarah Aronson, and Carrie Jones, an LJ friend whose books we’ve celebrated here at alphabet soup. She’s even more lovable and Carrie-ish in person, very huggable. She and Kekla Magoon received special Vermont College awards for their outstanding achievements.

Carrie uses her award to make a fashion statement.

I loved loved meeting Rita Williams-Garcia, whose One Crazy Summer has been receiving mega blog buzz for months. What beautiful, positive energy!

And it was Poetry Princess heaven! Not only did I get to see Sara Lewis Holmes, Tricia Stohr-Hunt and Kelly Fineman again, but I got to meet Liz Scanlon and Laura Purdie Salas! We all know how talented they are, but they’re also just so dang cute!

With Tricia Stohr-Hunt, a.k.a. Miss Rumphius.

Doesn’t Kelly Fineman have beautiful shoulders?

Loved chatting with Laura Salas, who revealed her "wild side."

A wonderful surprise: meeting L.K. (Lisa) Madigan, author of Flash Burnout, and winner of the William C. Morris YA Debut Award. Cheese cameras flashed before my eyes. ☺

Wish there had been more time to chat with Lisa Madigan.

Definitely one of my biggest kicks: meeting Grace Lin! You all know how much I love her books, and it was an indescribable pleasure to be able to talk to her in person about Newbery banquet dresses, her new Ling & Ting book, her appearance on the Today Show, and which genre she’d like to conquer next — board books! Then, of course, we got to thinking how cool it would be to have an entire line of merchandise tie-ins — crib accessories and (my favorite) melamine feeding sets. Can you imagine a line of Grace Lin dishes? *swoon*

My biggest fangirl moment with Grace Lin!

And of course, it was great to see fellow DC area people like Anne Marie Pace, Cynthia Cotten, Terry Doherty, Jacqueline Jules, Pam Coughlan, Lois Bartlett, Wendie Old, and Susan Kusel, founder of the DC Kidlit Book Club. It’s always dangerous to name names because I’m sure I’m leaving out a lot of people.

But I did want to thank Tami Lewis Brown for hosting such an awesome event, and extend my congratulations again to Maha for inspiring us all with her incredible work ethic and perseverance. Look for my pub day post in September about her new book, Time to Pray!

Have a lovely week, everyone. Stay cool!