CT Children's Book Fair

Today I attended the Connecticut Children’s Book Fair hosted at UConn. It was a day full of books, books and more books, plus catching up with my sister (who’s a student there)- what more could I ask for?

The highlight of the day was a panel with David Levithan, Eliot Shrefer, Samantha Schutz and Natalie Standiford called “Giving Teens A Voice: Writing and Editing Teen Fiction.”  As someone who is interested in both writing AND editing YA, it couldn’t have been more perfect.  And writer-editor David Levithan is an exemplary model of how to balance both (read more about him here). 

I also got to hear picture book/MG/YA author Leslie Connor talk.  I had just read her novel Waiting For Normal, which is excellent, so it was fun to meet her.  She was lovely.  Jarrett Krosoczka, who also crosses from picture book to MG graphic novels was a hilarious presenter and I highly recommend both the picture book he read, Punk Farm, and the Lunch Lady series. More picture book talks were offered by Caldecott winner artist Ed Young (Moon Bear, his latest book is wonderful).  He also taught us Chinese- twenty characters in just a few moments based on another one of his creative books!  Illustrator Andrea Wisnewski also educated audience members about papercutting, a beautiful illustration technique similar to woodcutting.  

Add visits by Clifford, Biscuit and Maisy, a loud puppet show, and buying more books than my budget allows (Crunch by Leslie Connor, The School For Dangerous Girls by Eliot Schrefer, Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan, Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and Levithan and Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and Levithan), it was a great day.

 

Looking forward to next year’s!