The American Booksellers Association’s Children’s Institute 2024 took place in New Orleans June 10–12, and as is to be expected when 393 booksellers, 135 publishers’ reps, and 26 vendors gather in that fabled city, the good times rolled. Booksellers enjoyed author signings, new books, dinner parties, and music, from the brass band that performed at Baldwin & Co.’s bookstore welcome reception on Sunday evening to the Drag Story Hour karaoke that closed the gathering on Wednesday. Most of all, attendees enjoyed each other’s knowledge, expertise, and camaraderie. Below are a few snapshots of a fun and productive bookseller conference that one CI first-timer who has attended multiple bookseller gatherings called “a kinder, gentler institute with a costume party that definitely set the tone.”
DJ Johnson, the owner of Baldwin & Co., greeting booksellers from Kepler’s Bookstore in Menlo Park, Calif. (from l.): Jasmine Valandauni, Amanda Hall, Johnson, and Donna Liu. Photo: Claire Kirch.
Dressed in full Mardi Gras regalia and accompanied by a percussionist and a drummer, Chief Otto “Fiyo” DeJean sang and twirled his way through a crowd of booksellers at Baldwin & Co.’s welcome reception for booksellers on Sunday evening before CI2024 kicked off. Photo: Kirch.
The highlight of Sunday evening’s reception in the Marigny neighborhood was the brass band, which concluded its performance by leading the booksellers in a line procession from the store’s courtyard to the street and the buses parked there. Photo: Kirch.
Bookshop.org staffers chose classic children’s characters for Monday’s costume party. Pictured (from l.): VP of engineering Kara Mansel showed up as Louise Fitzhugh’s Harriet the Spy, composition notebook and all; chief marketing officer Kimberly Snead dressed as Peter in Ezra Jack Keats’s The Snowy Day; and director of strategic relationships Steph Opitz branched out as Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree. Photo: Nathalie op de Beeck.
ABA marketing manager Courtney Wallace arrived by dragon to the costume party. Photo: op de Beeck.
Maria Dismondy, publisher of Michigan’s Cardinal Rule Press, enjoying a glass of wine inside her bus inspired by Mo Willems’s Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! Photo: Kirch.
ABA board members and booksellers (from l.) Jenny Cohen of Waucoma Bookstore in Hood River, Ore.; Kathy Burnette of Brain Lair in South Bend, Ind.; Lisa Swayze of Buffalo Street Books in Ithaca, N.Y.; and Jessica Stockton-Bagnulo of Greenlight Books in Brooklyn paused their conversation to pose for a photo. Photo: Kirch.
Vera Warren Williams, owner of Community Book Center in New Orleans, located since 1983 in Tremé, one of the Crescent City’s oldest neighborhoods, introducing her great-niece, Zenia Stewart, to Renée Watson after Watson’s Tuesday morning keynote. Photo: Kirch.
Bookseller Beth Menendez of A Likely Story in Baltimore, Md., contemplating which galleys by Indies Introduce authors she should get signed during the Tuesday afternoon signing and reception. Photo: Kirch
Jandy Nelson (c.), author of When the World Tips Over (Dial, Sept.), met Anastasia McKenna (l.) of the Twig Book Shop in San Antonio, Tex., and Annastasia Williams (r.) of The Bottom in Knoxville, Tenn., during the Tuesday evening authors reception. Photo: op de Beeck.
At the Tuesday evening reception, Britt Gondolfi gave out copies of a zine she created with illustrator Amanda Romanick to promote their debut picture book Look Up! Fontaine the Pigeon Starts a Revolution (Paw Prints). Gondolfi sat next to William Joyce (l.), who signed Rocket Puppies (Atheneum/Dlouhy, Nov.). “He reminisced about how it felt to be published for the first time,” she said, and “he encouraged me to soak it all up and make more books.” Photo: op de Beeck.
Tracy Baptiste (l.) signed copies of Moko Magic: Carnival Chaos (Freedom Fire, Aug.) with Freedom Fire publisher Kwame Mbalia, whose Jax Freeman and the Phantom Shriek is forthcoming from the imprint. ARCs of another 2024 title from Baptiste, Boy 2.0 (Algonquin Young Readers, Oct.), fairly flew out of the galley room. Photo: op de Beeck.
Bestselling adult mystery author Janet Evanovich made a surprise CI2024 appearance in support of her daughter, middle grade author Alex Evanovich, who signed copies of Keeper Chance and the Conundrum of Chaos (S&S, Oct.) at the Tuesday reception. Bookseller Rosemary Pugliese of Malaprop’s Bookstore in Asheville, N.C., recognized the elder Evanovich. Photo: Pugliese.
The Candlewick/Holiday House/Peachtree Tuesday evening dinner for booksellers and media at Kingfish in the French Quarter featured (from l.) Cheryl Willis Hudson (When I Hear Spirituals, illustrated by London Ladd, Holiday House, Jan. 2025), Megan McDonald (Fairy Door Diaries: Eliza and the Flower Door Fairies, illustrated by Lenny Wen, Candlewick, Feb. 2025), Jodi Meadows (Bye Forever, I Guess, Holiday House, Oct.), Dina Havranek (Giddy Barber Explodes in 11, Peachtree Teen, Oct.), Meg Medina (No More Señora Mimí, illustrated by Brittany Cicchese, Candlewick, Sept.), and Juan Vidal (A Second Chance on Earth, Holiday House, Sept.). Photo: Kirch.
The galley room was a scene of much chaos, as booksellers happily packed ARCs into shipping boxes, suitcases, and totes. Photo: op de Beeck.
Red Stick Reads (Baton Rouge, La.) co-owner Tere Hyfield (l.) and bookseller Lara Ashley (c.) with Pranoo Kumar (r.), owner of Rohi’s Readery (West Palm Beach, Fla.) after a Wednesday panel session on bookselling and social responsibility. Fun fact: Baton Rouge is French for “red stick.” Photo: Kirch.
During the Drag Story Hour karaoke, (from l.) Kalli King, a co-owner of Rediscovered Books in Boise, Idaho, and Donna Liu, a bookseller at Kepler’s in Menlo Park, Calif., partnered with Angela Whited and Mallory Hayes, two booksellers at Red Balloon Bookshop in St. Paul, Minn., to belt out “Butter” by BTS, as emcee Kozmik (seated), a New Orleans-based drag performer, looked on. Photo: Kirch.
The ABA can shake it! This photo was taken seconds after the organization’s member relations and engagement manager, Kamilah Clarke (r.), jumped on stage to join member relations and registration coordinator Cedar Fields (c.) in a spirited rendition of the Village People’s “YMCA” that had booksellers singing and dancing in front of the stage. New Orleans-based drag performer Kozmik (far l.), the event’s emcee, exclaimed in amazement as Fields and Clarke left the stage afterwards, “What just happened here?” Photo: Kirch.
