Hi! Blogging live from my hotel in Naperville, IL. I'm in Naperville/Chicago area for the annual Young Adult Literature Conference this Saturday, which I'm also speaking at. Here's a quick blog about my adventures so far...

I arrived in Naperville last night and met my totally glamorous cousin Susan and her friend Angela Bahng of WIND Magazine. Susan gave us a tour of downtown Naperville which is quite charming. We ended up at a very nice sushi bar. Susan took a billion photos of me while Angela interviewed me for a new Korean American issues magazine called WIND. As usual, I rambled on forever, but I think somehow Angela will be able to find a quote or two! Pictured above (L) is Angela and I!

You'll notice the picture on the right above of Bartlett. He and I visited Kennedy Jr. High in Lisle this morning for a school presentation put together by Anderson's Bookshop which is hosting the conference and all the authors' school visits this week. Librarian extraordinaire Paulette Goodman ran the show - I was really impressed by how dedicated she is to promoting reading to her students and to the faculty. This school is very pro-author and has many visiting authors stop by to talk to the students about books. Go Kennedy! I took this picture because they had my name flashing on it, saying something like "Welcome Author Paula Yoo!" I thought that was so cool but I kept missing it, so this was the best shot I could come up with below:

By the way, I couldn't find my camera so I am using my iPhone camera on this trip, and so far, it's been a serviceable camera although I wish I knew where I misplaced my awesome Canon birthday camera. Waaah!

I carry a lot of stuff with me on my school presentations. They include my computer, my violin, travelling stuffed bear Bartlett (of course), my high school yearbook, and lots of terrible high school pictures of myself. haha! The schools usually provide me with some sort of computer/slide projector contraption so I can show photos of my miserable high school self, a how-to-make-Spam-sushi-rolls-like-in-the-book slide show, and then I'll play some music, like Duran Duran and Mendelssohn and finally I play some of the music from the book on my violin!

Here's what my computer slide show set up usually looks like:

The kids at Kennedy were ADORABLE and SMART and FUNNY. I liked talking with both classes and they all asked great questions. Thanks to the wonderful students and the amazing faculty for making my visit so fun!

After the Kennedy visit, I drove along with Andersons Bookstore employee Charlotte Hall to Cass Jr. High in Darien, IL and met with Judy Miller and the school's principal plus several other faculty. The presentation was held in the chorus room and it was packed! Again the students were CUTE AS A BUTTON and SMART and FUNNY and I had a blast talking with them about writing. The students had just come from lunch, so it was a lively, sugar-fueled group of energetic kids! Cass, you guys rock!

Unfortunately, when I tried to take a photo of Bartlett at Cass Jr. High, my iPhone could only produce this dark picture below:

So to compensate, I found this generic photo of Cass Jr. High on google, so here you go:

Well, I'm exhausted and that was just two school visits. Tomorrow, I will be visiting the Namaste Charter School in Chicago because my good friend Marilyn is a teacher there. So stay tuned for more live blogging tomorrow about my adventures in Chicago!