Book People

Last week, Billie Levy and I figured out how to use the camera feature on her cell phone so we could ask our waitress at Rizzuto’s to take a photo of our happy lunch with Karen Romano Young and Kat Lyons.  Billie and I huddled together, pressing buttons and switching through the menu layers in an ever deeper maze of tiny icons, and I must say, it was a kick when we hit the first instant the screen was clearly seeing through a lens.

Billie Levy, Caragh O'Brien, Karen Romano Young and Kat Lyons all post-dessert.

You can see the victory in our faces here, with Billie still holding her phone.

(Yes, it’s a small thing, mastering a cell phone camera, but hey.  Remember how sci-fi and magical it was when Captain Kirk and company had communicators?  Now I have one!  And it takes photos!  My family gave me a new cell phone for Mother’s Day because A) they love me and B) my old one only worked with the speaker phone feature on.  In effect, I could only have very loud, unprivate conversations.  I have yet to figure out how to transfer the photos from my old phone to my new phone, so I feel a bit bereft and confused with a generic boat scene where my kids used to be for wall-paper, but hey again.  I will figure it out.  I will master my own cell phone.)

But back to last week.  Billie Levy hosts Children’s Books: Their Creators and Collectors for the local WHC-TV station in West Hartford, and she very kindly invited Kat, Karen and me by to tape a segment in anticipation of the Connecticut Book Festival.  Kat Lyons, co-chair of the festival, has worked for over two years with partnership colleagues throughout the state to organize the free event, which promises to bring thousands of book lovers to the UConn Greater Hartford campus May 21^st and 22^nd.  Karen and I are among over three dozen writers who will be presenting at the festival, some of us individually and others on panels.  It should, I think, be very fun.

What’s nice for me is that the festival has already brought me together with Billie, Karen, and Kat.  After the taping, we scooted through the rain to the nearby Rizzuto’s, where we talked of Osama Bin Ladin’s death, finishing school in Puerto Rico, Maurice Sendak, public education, and the girls-only book club GRLS.  We talked of the Northeast Children’s Literature Collection, walled medieval cities in Tuscany, book collectors, and desserts.  Then we ordered two to share: the fluffy white cake with peaches and the twelve-layer chocolate cake.

You know what?  Book people are nice.  They don’t come any more generous and genuine than Billie Levy.  Being with her, Kat, and Karen for a day made me want to find ways to be more giving myself.  I hope you know people like that, too.