Jeff Ridgeway and I attended one day of the three day 2011 SoMIRAC (State of Maryland International Reading Association Council) Conference on March 30. This is probably the best conference of any that I attend. Remember that the school systems have Reading Teachers as well as all of the other staffs who would be interested and participate in it - so it is a large conference. We attended sessions that include "You Mean a Real Person Wrote That?'' Itwas about bringing authors to your workplace. The Keynote Speaker, Dr. Danny Brassell, talked bout "Waking Up Your Lazy Readers." He was excellent and the info would apply to public libraries as well as to schools. We also heard the Featured Author, Jay Asher, talk about his fiction book "Thirteen Reasons Why." (good for about 12 - 18 year olds.) He has other books in process. The Featured Speaker for afternoon was Sneed Collard, 111. Every one of his books is fantastic in text and pictures. He was great and we left on a "high." Other time was spent at the many vender booths and interaction with persons we know. The Swan Meadow School in Garrett County was able to get him for a visit to their (Amish/Mennonite) school. I notified the public libraries early on about taking some of their groups to hear him.