I was fortunate enough to be among the authors at Teen Book Festival 2011 and can't say enough about how wonderful the experience was. Every author was made to feel like a superstar from the second we arrived in Rochester. It was wonderful for me to walk into a gym filled with screaming teens, to be able to connect with so many young readers, to hang out with so many great authors, and to be treated so wonderfully by the event's charming hosts. But, let's face it, what makes TBF magical isn't how much fun it is for the authors. The Teen Book Festival is truly about the teens. I lost track of the number of smiling kids who were thrilled to listen to and interact (for no charge!) with their literary heroes.  We always tell kids "books are important" and "we're proud of you for reading," but the message doesn't always get through. We need more grand gestures. We need more parades of authors led by marching bands. We need more standing ovations for those who write books, those who read books, and those who connect the two. We need more librarians willing to dye their hair outrageous colors. We need more public ways to shout loudly that books are awesome and so are the kids who read them. What we need, in short, is more TBFs. I hope it's a tradition that lasts forever. Josh Berk