Words, Wisdom and Wonder

I had been waiting weeks for the day when I would finally get to see my idol, Julie Andrews, at the ALA Conference. So many of us have seen her in films and television, listened to her crystal voice on recordings and laughed at her performances. Growing up in the sixties, I was inspired by Camelot, The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins to learn to sing and kept it up in college at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. No doubt about it, I always wanted to sing just like her.

Of course, that would have been impossible. There is no one like Julie Andrews. Her appearance at the conference began with a video montage of her work as a child star in England and continued through her most recent performances in The Princess Diaries. As she entered the hall, she was greeted with thunderous applause and a standing ovation. She broke the news immediately: she was just that day asked to chair National Library Week, and was accepting without hesitation. Her work with Harper Collins to produce "The Julie Andrews Collection" imprint was going to reproduce out-of-print books that would keep alive the words that would lead children to a greater wisdom and understanding of literature that would again lead them to wonder about the world. "Words, Wisdom, and Wonder" is the motto that appears on all the books in the collection also produced by her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton. The mother and daughter pair have most recently collaborated on The Great American Mousical and both later signed copies of the book for 100 lucky ALA members. I was one of them.

I was able to talk briefly with her -- everyone agrees that she is radiantly beautiful and much younger looking than anyone who was born in 1935. Sandy was able to sneak a photo of her, and a smile, as she passed by with the security guards. Everyone who worked with her at the convention used words like "classy" and "graceful" and "generous" to describe her. Her dedication to children's literature was evident during her lecture, and I am thrilled that the 30th anniversary edition of The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles has been published. However, as I left the auditorium, I couldn't help but wish she had hummed just a few bars of something from one of her musicals. After that, I could have danced all day...