Pennies for their thoughts

I love this picture in the Chicago Tribune, a reaction shot to one of the award announcements at the ALA Midwinter Meeting. Across the front row we have librarian Walter Mayes (who officiated at our wedding!), Nancy, author Jennifer Jacobson, her agent Barry Goldblatt, blogger/librarians Lynn Rutan and Cindy Dobrez, and teacher Monica Edinger, collectively displaying a wide variety of emotions. It's fun to speculate about what different thought bubbles might be placed above each head -- I leave this as an exercise for the reader -- but the one constant across the group is obvious passion, for the results and for children's literature generally.