Laurie Lawlor - Illinois Prairie State Award

March 18, 2010, My friend Cheryl and I traveled to Springfield Illinois to be at the banquet when Laurie Lawlor was presented the Illinois Prairie State Award.  Last year, we had been there when Jim Aylesworth received the same award for 2009.  Both authors have pages that summarize the evening.
http://www.laurielawlor.com/about/prairiestateaward.html
http://www.ayles.com/prairiestateaward.html
Here's a few more people we met at the award and the Authors Read event immediately following the banquet. (If you want to enlarge the images below, just click on the image.)

Marlene Targ Bill -- Marlene is a good friend of Laurie's and was there to congratulate her on her award.Marlene is a fine author herself. And though she has more recent titles, Tooth Tales Around the World continues to be among my very favorites.	David Weisner -- I was on the 2007 Caldecott Committee that named Flotsam the 2007 Award winning book so of course I LOVE this linked site about Flotsam.	Eric A. Kimmel -- Kimmel's titles number in the hundreds. Among my favorites are his Anansi tales, each illustrated by Janet Stevens.
Greg Leitich Smith and Cynthia Leitich Smith-- Gotta love everything these two write. I have loved Cynthia's Jingle Dancer from the first day I read it, but perhaps my favorite is the quirky twists in her collection of stories, Indian Shoes. Of Greg's books my favorite is still the first he wrote; perhaps because it was his first, Ninjas, Piranhas and Galileo; very clever.	Eric Kimmel and Richard and Marlene Targ Brill -- Richard Brill and Eric Kimmel are college friends, and though unplanned both ended up at the Illinois Reading Conference and enjoyed reminiscing and telling old stories. I think Marlene took notes (LOL).	Will Hobbs-- Will Hobbs's adventure stories are very popular. Any adventureous reader (male or female) will not want to pass up reading any of his books. But don't miss-Crossing the Wire. You might develop a new perspective about a current hot topic.

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On the day after the award banquet, my friend and I visited (again) the Lincoln Museum -- I love the curator's "show" there and also loved the many displays that are on exhibit. One of my favorite was the log cabin where Abe taught himself how to read. Such a small space and I complain about the size of my kitchen. Pshaw! My dining area is most likely larger than the Lincoln's entire house (not counting the loft where the boys entered via the peg ladder in the wall. I doubt if the boys ever had to make their bed in the morning as I'm not picturing their step-mother climbing up on the pegs to check. But for a moment "I" was part of the Lincoln family.