The annual Miami Book Fair is happening both in-person and online this year, and starts streaming in just two days!
The Latinx KidLit Book Festival is free and virtual again this year, and it’s happening on is free, virtual, and takes place on December 9th and 10th!
Go here to download the Festival program and see the speakers: there are some exciting panels this year and a concert for kids! The Education link on the website leads you to some great educator guides in English and Spanish, and a link to a Latinx KidLit Book database, so be sure to click your way over there. Authors are on FlipGrid, so share that with your readers and your education contacts.
Today’s a big news day, huh? Just on the heels of my post about the Kids’ Book Awards Finalists, Every Child a Reader announced that not only is Jason Reynolds extending his term as the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature for an additional year, but that they are accepting proposal submissions from schools interesting in hosting an event with Mr. Reynolds! Events are likely to be held in April/May 2022, as Mr. Reynolds will be holding in-person events. The press release is here and you can read full details on the Every Child a Reader website.
If you’re not a school library, please consider getting in touch with schools nearby and collaborate with them on submitting a proposal. Other criteria, from Every Child a Reader, are as follows:
Good luck!
The Library of Congress’s National Book Festival starts in two days! Are you ready? This year, the LOC invited blog subscribers to be Festival Ambassadors, so here I am, talking to you, about attending.
What’s good this year, you ask? SO MUCH, I answer. The expanded Festival has videos on demand, author conversations in real time, and live Q&A sessions. There’s a new NPR podcast series, live virtual events with the Washington Post, and a PBS special hosted by LeVar Burton (with Librarian of Congress rock star Carla Hayden)! Featured authors this year? How do Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Angie Thomas, Michael J. Fox, Jason Reynolds, Martha Wells sound for a start?
I can’t wait for the Spider-Man Origin Story in Art and Comic Books, happening online on 9/23 and the live Q&A with The Magic Fish author and illustrator, Trung Le Nguyen on the 25th. Derrick Barnes is going to be talking about I Am Every Good Thing, and Dan Gutman will be chatting about Houdini and Me on the 26th. There’s something for everyone over the next 10 days!
Check out the Schedule At A Glance right here, and print out a copy of this little game to play online with the LOC and your friends.
Handy-dandy links to bookmark and follow:
National Book Festival Website: loc.gov/bookfest
National Book Festival blog: https://blogs.loc.gov/national-book-festival/
Library of Congress Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/librarycongress/
Library of Congress Twitter: https://twitter.com/librarycongress
Events at the Library of Congress Twitter: https://twitter.com/events_loc
Carla Hayden’s Librarian of Congress Twitter: https://twitter.com/libnofcongress
Library of Congress Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/libraryofcongress
Library of Congress on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/loc
Start planning!
Any horror fans out there? I am psyched, because Summer Scares is back this year! The Summer Scares Reading Program is a program through the Horror Writers Association, in a partnership with United for Libraries, Book Riot, and BookList, to promote horror titles to adult, teen (YA), and middle grade readers. I’ve been aware of the program in the past, but this year, I am determined to do something about it. Big thanks to RA for All’s Becky Spratford – also one of this year’s committee members – for her blog entry that gave me the heads-up. Programming will be virtual, and is a nice extension of summer reading programs for those kids and teens who may be more interested in horror or the spookier side of life than the usual Summer Reading themes.
This year’s middle grade picks are:
Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods by Hal Johnson.. (Aug. 2015, Workman), $22.75, ISBN: 9780761184614
Whichwood by Tahereh Mafi, (Nov. 2017, Dutton Books for Young Readers), $17.99, ISBN: 9781101994795
Ollie’s Odyssey by William Joyce, (Apr. 2016, Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books), $12.99, ISBN: 9781442473553
YA picks are:
The Diviners by Libba Bray, (Sept. 2012, Little Brown Books for Young Readers), $11.99, ISBN: 978-0316126106 (This is for the paperback copy, which came out in 2013.)
The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline, (May 2017, Dancing Cat Books), $13.45, ISBN: 978-1770864863
Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson, (May 2018, Razorbill), $17.99, ISBN: 978-045147823
To learn more about Summer Scares and the Horror Writers Association, visit their website. To read Becky Spratford’s full blog entry on Summer Scares 2021, visit her blog, RA for All. If you have successful horror program, virtual or in-person, that you want to shout about, please let me know! My Library Kiddos are big on spooky stuff, and I’d love to get some ideas to have in my back pocket.
I was voluntarily #ALALeftBehind yesterday (online conference fatigue is real), but you know I was pinned to social media during the Youth Media Award announcements. I’m so happy with all the Medalists and Honorees!
Image source: AmericanLibrariesmagazine.org
This is a great chance to put together virtual and in-person Award Winner displays – those always get attention – and add these to your Readers Advisory toolkit. Make bookmarks with this year’s winners and honorees, update your current lists, and spread the word.
Lists of the winners are available via the ALA press release, American Libraries magazine, Book Riot, and watch the streaming replay on ALA’s Midwinter website (you don’t need to be registered for the conference to view).
There’s a great professional development/learning opportunity coming up in December: The Latinx KidLit Book Festival is free, virtual, and takes place on December 4th and 5th!
The author list is a dream: Elizabeth Acevedo, Eric Velasquez, Francisco Stork, Gabby Rivera, Raúl the Third, and SO MANY MORE. My head is spinning. Zoraida Cordova is also attending, so I’ll be sitting here, in front of my computer, clutching my Brooklyn Brujas books and squealing.
Fill out the Librarian/Educator information form and get on this mailing list. There are also links to Educator Resources for a variety of children’s books by Latinx authors and illustrators further down on the Educator Resources pages – don’t miss these.
The panels look fantastic. I particularly want to see the one on Picture Books in the Age of Activism, and the Fantasy, Myths, and Legends also looks amazing.
Made for readers and educators alike, try to catch this festival. We need to support these authors, illustrators, and publishers!
It’s BookExpo week, and normally, I’d be running free in the Javits Center in New York City, talking to editors and fangirling over authors, then terrifying my family with the amount of books I’d bring home. This year, while my step count isn’t getting much action, I’m still online with BookExpo – yesterday was Librarian’s Day, so I was in education sessions for most of the day, which was pretty great – and School Library Journal’s Day of Dialog, which I’ve never been able to attend in the past. Right now, I’m watching Jason Reynolds and Dr. Ibram Kendi on one laptop while I type this post on another. What a time to be alive, amirite?
If you’re into books, you can’t beat BookCon, which has been the consumer/book lover lovefest that arrives at the end of BookExpo every year. This year, it’s free, too. And since I don’t have to work or run around with the kids this year, guess where I’ll be? My heart may run free in the Javits, but my brain and body will be here, on my couch, waiting to fangirl for Judy Blume. Check out details and the schedule here:
Taking place Saturday, May 30 and Sunday, May 31, BookConline will feature sessions throughout each day with different authors and publishers to give viewers a front row look at debut books and behind-the-scenes peeks at some of their favorite titles. Participating authors include Jenny Han, Angie Thomas, Judy Blume, Joe Hill, Cassandra Clare, Jack Black, Adam Silvera and dozens more.
The full programming schedule for BookConline is now available below and HERE and all panels will be streamed for free on BookCon’s Facebook page and BookCon’s Facebook group.
The first day of ALA Midwinter tends to be a little slow, so I was thrilled when my friend invited me to be her +1 at Bloomsbury’s Book Buzz, held at the Free Library of Philadelphia. I was planning on visiting the library during my Midwinter visit, so this was perfect! We got to enjoy the Our Five Senses exhibit, which included some beautiful picture book framed artwork and thought-provoking questions about the senses various art invoked in the kids.
Still one of my favorite storytime books: artwork from Aliki’s My Five Senses (1962).
A friendly, giant eyeball welcomes us to the exhibit.
Artwork from Angela Dominguez’s Maria Had a Little Llama (2013).
Sketches from Zachariah OHora’s Stop Snoring, Bernard! (2011), which is storytime GOLD.
Artwork from Lizi Boyd’s Flashlight (2014).
Ezra Jack Keats’s artwork for Ann McGovern’s Zoo, Where Are You? (1964)
Finally, it was time to go to the Book Buzz, where there were snacks! There were fun tattoos and swag bags for all, and we got to enjoy author Isaac Fitzgerald’s presentation about his book, How To Be a Pirate, and the four additional books being fêted.
I love this picture so much, but the actual photo it’s based on was underneath, and it is stunning.
The work that went into this book is incredible: look at the Google Image search, and look at how illustrator Laura Freeman used it to create this spread.
I love this series! Connie Schofield-Morrison and Frank Morrison are back with their upbeat young protagonist from I Got Rhythm and I Got the Christmas Spirit. Now, she’s showing readers her school spirit, and the artwork is just PERFECT.
I can’t even do this justice with photos. The artwork is gorgeous, with warm colors and the full run of facial expressions, from “Whoa, this school is big” to “I am not having this”. I love this relentlessly cheerful little girl and wish I could channel her positive energy every day.
A Way With Wild Things has the sweetest story of an introvert named Poppy, who will do anything to not stand out at family gatherings, including dressing like household fabrics… until she spies a gorgeous dragonfly at one backyard party. Sara Palacios’ artwork is just beautiful, and I love spotting Poppy in each spread. Didn’t get a photo of this spread, because I just couldn’t capture the textures in a way that made me happy with the photo.
This book is WAY too much fun. It’s a story about girls being pirates, about tattoos and their meanings, and love. The author and illustator are both tattooed and fantastic, and Isaac Fitzgerald’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. How To Be a Pirate reminds me a bit of 2016’s Tell Me a Tattoo Story, by Alison McGhee and Eliza Wheeler; I love the way each book illustrates the meanings we have behind our tattoos. Adorable, fun, and with gorgeous illustration with a definite tattoo flair.
Mom Read It 
