Our #MIBF2014 Experience

The boys holding their precious finds
from the Adarna booth.

I wrote about my plans on attending the 35th Manila International Book Fair in my previous post here. But my original plan did not push through because of Typhoon Mario. My original plan was to bring the kids to the book fair last Friday for our field trip. But Pagasa sent out an advisory placing Metro Manila and other provinces/areas under Red Alert. I was afraid that we'd get stranded somewhere because of floods so I decided to stay home instead on Friday.

 

Good thing that it was also part of my plan to go to the book fair last Thursday afternoon. We planned to leave around 3 or 4 PM but the package that I scheduled to be picked up was not picked up until around 4:30 PM. So we got to leave the house around 5 PM already. We were trying to catch the weekday Mass in the church beside SMX but because it was a rainy day and the rush hour has begun, we had a hard time getting a taxi ride and we eventually got caught in heavy traffic. Sadly, we missed the Mass and arrived at the SMX Convention Center just before 7 PM.
 




We stayed long at the Lampara Books booth
because the boys loved playing at Barangay Pag-asa!
We even met the author and illustrator of the book that evening.

We wasted no time and headed right away to the booths that I listed as priority destinations. We quickly bought the books in our priority list, had some photos taken and moved to the next booths in our list to look for the books that we wanted to buy. Praise God that even with very limited time that evening, we got to find and buy all the priority books in our list! I was already paying for the last book on our priority list when my husband called me that he's already outside the convention center with our vehicle waiting for us.
 

Our first day loot from the #MIBF2014!

My 5-year-old with his new World of Flags poster
that we found at Fully Booked's booth
and globe now displayed in his study area.

The following day, when I woke up and learned that there's a storm, I cheered the boys instead by reading some of the books that we bought from the book fair. Even though classes were suspended that day for all levels, we had our homeschool lessons using our newly-bought books.

We used these books as homeschool materials
last Friday while there was a storm.

We went to Mass also that evening and prayed that the weather condition would improve the following day so we can go back to the book fair and attend the workshops that were scheduled the following day.

God heard our prayers and we woke up to a sunny day last Saturday morning. We hurriedly ate our breakfast and got ready to go to SMX!

Book signing for Ngumiti si Andoy.

Just like in our first visit, we went to our priority booths again. Our priority booths were divided into tiers. We went to the booths in the second tier last Saturday. We also bought the books which were next in our priority list.

Happy to find a book on the young Jose Rizal from the Vibal booth!

We went to the activities and workshops that we planned to attend. Most important to us were the storytelling session and book signing activities with the Author and Illustrator of the Jepoy the Jeepney Series, Jomike Tejido. 

Yanthy's one-on-one workshop
with author Zara Gagatiga.

We also attended the Children's Story Writing Workshop by Zara Gagatiga. She's the Author of the book My Daddy! My One and Only! I initially thought that the workshop was for adults but it was for kids. So, my eldest son was the one who participated in it. It became a one-on-one workshop since the other kids who bought copies of the book did not stay for the workshop.

Had our copy signed and a photo taken
with the author.

Our whole family attended Lampara's Story Writing Workshop last Saturday afternoon as soon as we had our books signed by Jomike Tejido. 

Book signing with the author and illustrator
of Jepoy the Jeepney Series. 

My husband and I learned a lot from the workshop. I have already written a few manuscripts of children's storybooks and the new things I learned will definitely help me fine-tune them.

The speakers at the workshop.

We hurriedly went to the mobile planetarium set up near the stage area right after the writing workshop in one of the meeting rooms. Thankfully, we already had our tickets printed so we were able to watch the free movie before we left the book fair. The movie that we watched was about the birth and death of stars and the telescopes launched into space to take photos there. Very timely for our science lessons also based on our Space Book. (You may read about my book review of this book here in one of my previous posts.) 

After watching at the mobile planetarium. 

Our second day loot from the #MIBF2014!

We still didn't have enough time to check out the other booths in the book fair. There was so much to explore with very little time! I didn't even get to say hi to my author friends who had scheduled book signing and book launching activities at the fair. I was one busy mom during the book fair! Since we had other appointments for Sunday, we were no longer able to go back yesterday. At least, we got all the books I listed that I wanted to use in our homeschool and we got them at discounted prices. We will definitely come back next year to buy more books, homeschool resources, search for educational toys, meet other authors and illustrators and attend workshops. Who knows, I might even launch a book there next time if God wills it!

 

Did you also go to the 2014 MIBF? Feel free to share your experience in the comments.