It's no secret that I love children's books. I can't recall a time when I've been to an author book signing event, and tonight we had the unique opportunity to see Oliver Jeffers. Over time we have checked out many of his books from the library, and one of his titles, A Child of Books, made it onto my books website (linked above) as a favorite.

We decided that this would be a fun experience for Stella, and really the whole family. So fun, in fact, we offered it as an option for Stella to miss ballet practice for it. We are wanting to do more memorable things we we'll remember as a family, and this fit the bill pretty well. So we made a point to be super early in the carpool line (we were 4th), and race down to Decatur.

Here are a couple of pictures to show you the atmosphere of the event. It was held at The Little Shop of Stories. This seriously has to be one of the best children's bookstores in Georgia, if not the country. Go check them out. The store is simply amazing, despite having a website that could use some love (psst... I know a guy who makes websites).

After carrying on with the crowd for a little bit, Oliver read his brand new book, called Here We Are, and then everyone went downstairs while they staged the room for him to sign books. By the time we got to him, we had to choose between him doodling in the book and posing for a picture with him. OF COURSE we chose the doodle option. And fortunately, I had my photographer (aka, my awesome wife) with me, and she took some candids during the signing process.

In this last one, I had just asked him which book was his favorite. And I think Stella was in a state of both shock that he had drawn in her book, and a state of admirating what he had drawn in her book.

Afterwards, we were hanging out downstairs, looking at all the awesome books, and Nikole snapped a shot of Stella's books, and another of Stella posing with each of the books she owns.

And of course, Owen wasn't going to stand for his sister getting a book and him not walking out with a truck book! He has also gotten really great at making fun faces lately, and this is one of them.

This event was a lot of fun. Now I'm going to be seeking out author signing events, especially as our library of kids' books grows, and I keep discovering more and more really great books.