Home from Day Two of the MIBF! I had a shopping jag early in the day (major geek mode in all of ten minutes 0_0) so I wanted to steer clear of buying any more books for the rest of the day.
The day started pretty early for me as the Filipino ReaderCon team (Honey, Jason and I) announced the finalists for the Filipino Readers’ Choice Awards, a result of three-odd weeks of voting and over 30,000 ballots. The three finalists in each category will go on to panel judging, where three readers will evaluate each book in each category to determine the winners for the Readers’ Choice Awards. The awards ceremony is slated for the Filipino ReaderCon on Nov. 14.
After the short announcement, I was on my way to a book launch when I happened to pass the National Book Store booth on my way out, and then wham!
This happened.
Soooo hahaha out of guilt I decided to immerse myself in work and bookish sessions for the rest of the day.
I went up to the book launch that I was en route to before I got waylaid, for Lampara Books’ “Moymoy Lulumboy” by Segundo Matias, Jr., illustrated by one of my most talented (not to mention prolific!) friends, Jomike Tejido:
That was definitely a memorable book launch — they even had a group from PETA perform a musical number based on the book! Caught Jomike on the sidelines of the event and he showed me original art for the book cover:
First impressions: interesting premise, excellent print quality, and such lovely, lovely art (Review to follow when I’ve read it!).
Congratulations, Sir Jun and Jomike!
After my press duties were done for the afternoon, I headed for the NBDB-PBBY dialogue for children’s book creators, led by NBDB Executive Director Ciela Cayton and PBBY Chair Tarie Sabido.
The dialogue with writers and illustrators tackled concerns from both sectors and NBDB and PBBY’s efforts towards the further development of the Philippine children’s book industry.
The session also featured a talk by the National Book Development Council of Singapore representative Carlo Peña — and this is where two of my favorite book events converge — who discussed the Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC) and opportunities for collaboration, especially for next year’s MIBF.
Caught up with INKie friends (and we made a new friend from Japan!), most of whom I see only during book fair:
I also checked out the WeeWillDoodle X MIBF wall:
They actually have two walls but the second wall was mistaken for a freedom wall (see top photo) and it actually turned out quite nice, so I think that other wall will stay as is. Couldn’t resist adding my bit to it:
I leave you with that for now. Tomorrow, will post photos of my MIBF loot thus far. Toodles, and see you at the book fair! :)