ALA Galley Haul
As promised, I want to share with you all the galleys I was able to pick up while at the American Library Association’s Annual Conference. I’m going to assume you haven’t been to this conference or know anyone who has, so let me explain.
Like most conferences, the American Library Association’s Annual Conference has a massive exhibit hall filled with vendors ready and waiting to promote their wares. For libraries, this includes online resources, integrated library system software, educational opportunities, and of course, publishers. Vendors like to share swag to entice to their booth so they can talk sell you their product. The best part for me is that the publishers spend the entire conference talking about books – recently published and titles on their upcoming list. Which also means galleys. Galleys or Advanced Reader’s Copies (ARCs) are pre-published titles that are still in the process of being edited but will be coming out usually in the next 1-6 months.
What most people on the exhibit floor do, is slink by a publisher, take a quick glance at all the galleys and published books available and grab what they want without meeting anyone’s eye. As if the publisher doesn’t want you to actually take the books (that’s why they are there)! What I’ve learned is if you can take a quick look at what they published recently and can comment on anything (in a positive way), the marketing team on the exhibit floor will gladly share news about new titles, make some suggestions and if you’re lucky sneak behind the curtain to grab you an ARC that’s hiding in the back. I love chatting with people who can quickly booktalk a title and at the same time get as excited as you are about the new books.
So, here’s what my galleys looked like when I got all 58 of them home this week. Every year I convince myself that I’m only going to grab a couple, but every year I take one step on that exhibit floor and all rational thinking goes out the window! I made an effort to try and grab things that I wouldn’t normally – I’ve got 5-6 graphic novels I’m excited to read, of course, lots of middle grade books, but even some YA that looked too good to pass up. This is my complete list of titles, but don’t worry – I’ve also logged publisher, age, genre, format, and whether or not it’s autographed and I’ve already read it. Here’s my complete table, if you’re interested in how my crazy mind works!
[su_table]| Author | Title |
| The Avant-Guards | |
| Balcárcel, Rebecca | The Other Half of Happy |
| Balen, Katya | The Space We’re In |
| Blabey, Aaron | Piranhas Don’t Eat Bananas |
| Blake, Ashley Herring | Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World |
| Bouwman, H.M. | A Tear In the Ocean (Companion to A Crack In the Sea) |
| Bowling, Dusti | Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus |
| Braden, Ann | The Benefits of Being an Octopus |
| Burnell, Heather Ayris | Unicorn and Yeti: A Good Team |
| Coe, Victoria J. | Fenway and Hattie In the Wild |
| Craft, Jerry | New Kid |
| Davies, Sam | Hex Vet: Witches in Training |
| Dessen, Sarah | The Rest of the Story |
| Elston, Ashley | 10 Blind Dates |
| Farr, Bridget | Pavi Sharma’s Guide to Going Home |
| Fenske, Jonathan | Let’s Play, Crabby! |
| Firkins, Jacqueline | Hearts, Strings, and Other Breakable Things |
| Fisher, Valorie | What You Eat: Pictures and Answers for the Curious Mind |
| Gemeinhart, Dan | The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise |
| Gibbs, Stuart | Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation |
| Giff, Patricia Reilly | A Slip of a Girl |
| Glaser, Karina Yan | The Vanderbeekers to the Rescue |
| Harkrader, Lisa | The Misadventures of Nobbin Swill |
| Higgins, Ryan T. | Bruce’s Big Fun Day |
| Holt, K.A. | Redwood and Ponytail |
| Horwitz, Sarah Jean | The Dark Lord Clementine |
| Kadarusman, Michelle | Girl on the Southern Sea |
| Kennedy, Caitlin | C-3PO Does NOT Like Sand! |
| Leopard, Kara | Pandora’s Legacy |
| May, Kyla | Diary of a Pug: Pug Blasts Off |
| Medina, Juana | Juana & Lucas: Big Problemas |
| Morrow, Bethany C. | Take the Mic |
| Noll, Amanda | How I Met My Monster |
| North, Ryan | Midas |
| Otheguy, Emma | Silver Meadows Summer |
| Palacio, R.J. | Wonder |
| Pasternack, Sofiya | Anya and the Dragon |
| Paul, Pamela | How to Raise a Reader |
| Peretti, Paola | The Distance Between Me and the Cherry Tree |
| Ritter, William | The Oddmire: Changeling |
| Rivers, Karen | Naked Mole Rat Saves the World |
| Shankle, Melanie | Piper & Mabel: Two Very Wild but Very Good Dogs |
| Singer, Marilyn | Float, Flutter |
| Spalding, Amy | We Used to Be Friends |
| Stamper, Phil | The Gravity of Us |
| Stark-McGinnis, Sandy | Extraordinary Birds |
| Sturges, Lilah | Lumberjanes |
| Sumrow, Melanie | The Inside Battle |
| Swartz, Elly | Give and Take |
| Telgemeier, Raina | Guts |
| Tingle, Tim | Doc and the Detective in Graveyard Treasure |
| Wiles, Deborah | Anthem |
| Willard, Christopher | Alphabreaths: The ABCs of Mindful Breathing |
| Yee, F. C. | The Epic Crush of Genie Lo |
| Yolen, Jane | How Do Dinosaurs Learn to Read? |
| Zagzek, Alyssa | Martin McLean, Middle School Queen |
