I met Pam Muñoz Ryan, author of Esparanza Rising and Echo!

At the San Joaquin Valley Bookfest, I was able to speak an a panel with my publisher, Bushel & Peck Books.

I arrived early to the event after checking out from my hotel and there was one other person by the stage. I didn't recognize her (as we've never met before), but I soon discovered she was Pam Muñoz Ryan, the keynote speaker for the event.

She's the author of Esparanza Rising, Echo, and dozens of other books. We talked for a little while before others started arriving. She gave me some resources for working on graphic novels as she just finished writing the graphic novel to Esparanza Rising which comes out later this year. 

Her keynote was awesome and introduced her new book, El Niño. 

Later, I was able to join her and other presenters for lunch and I learned about a charity she's a board member on call lisalibraries.org. You should check it out!

When I told my family about meeting her, my teenage daughter fan-girled out a bit. She loves Pam's books and wished she could have come to meet her.