Rhode Island Children's Book Festival 2017!

Another truly wonderful Rhode Island Children's Book Festival has come and gone, and as always I'm left with more happy memories than I could ever cover in a single blog post!  Oh my goodness...where to start??

Ashaway students with author Charise Mericle Harper

My day started in the book room where I volunteered for a couple hours.  Not only did I have plenty of time to explore all the wonderful titles on display (while straightening up of course!), but I also enjoyed the opportunity to chat with some of the enthusiastic visitors.  One of my favorite ways of striking up a conversation was when I'd approach parents to ask permission to post pictures I'd taken of their children.  This always developed into a chat about how much they loved the book festival, praise for the encouragement of reading, and an all-around book love-fest.  What a lovely way to begin my day!

Baby's first book festival!!

I am always delighted when I see some Ashaway faces in the crowd, and this year I was not disappointed!  Not only did I get to see some of my students, but I also ran into two of my former student teachers!  Miss Hurley -- now Mrs. Tetreault! -- introduced her daughter to the festival.  (Yes, that's a Hogwart's t-shirt peaking out of Kairi's jacket.  Nice job, Mom!)

Of course, the BEST thing about the festival is meeting the authors and illustrators and getting to listen to their presentations!  I learned so much! Here's a list of my Top 10:

#1 - Alan Katz has always had a terrific sense of humor.  He wrote his own version of "Jack and the Beanstalk" when he was in grade school, and it's adorable. 

Alan Katz, author of Ashaway favorite "Take Me Out of the Bathtub"

     Once upon a time there was a boy name Jack.  He lived with his mom and their cow in a 10^th floor one room apartment.  One day, Mom said, “Jack please be a good boy and bring the cow to market and trade her for vegetables and other good foods.”

     Jack said, “But Mom, can’t we keep her?  She is a good friend and she moos me to sleep every night.”

     But mom said no and so he went to market and traded the cow for beans which he thought were beans to eat but were really magic beans instead.  Then he traded the magic beans for what he really wanted – a color TV. 

     When he got home his mother was mad.  She said, “You can’t eat a color TV.”

     And Jack said, “No, but you can’t watch vegetables.”

     Jack was sent to his room for 3 weeks but he didn’t mind because the color TV was in there too.

#2 - Charise Mericle Harper created a studio out of a renovated food truck.  She calls it "The Noodle".

The Noodle is tiny!  It's only 4.5 feet wide and 15 feet long!   On the outside she's hung a solar-powered sign that spells out "YAY".  She can see it lit up at night when she looks out the window of her house and, she says, "It makes me super happy!"

(I really, really want one of my own now.)

#3 - She also has a dog that looks like Yoda.

#4 - She had trouble coming up with a way of making the drawings for her "Sasquatch" series look different from her other books.  Then she came up with a clever solution: she's right-handed, so she switched to using her left hand!

Drawing her character "Just Grace", right-handed then left-handed

She wanted her characters in the Sasquatch books to appear "rougher".  Can you see the differences between the two?

#5 - Marc Brown has a goat named Hillary Rodham Clinton.

(Hillary is the brown goat on the left.)  Apparently Marc actually enjoyed a visit by Mrs. Clinton at his home, and he had the opportunity to introduce them.  The original Hillary was not as impressed as he had hoped!  

 #6 - Barbara McClintock is left-handed, and so are both of her parents!

Barbara shared this picture of her working in her studio

Back in the day, children were discouraged from writing with their left hands.  Barbara's father struggled to write with his right hand for decades and had terrible penmanship as a result.  Then, in his 40's, he decided that there was no reason to continue struggling and he happily switched back to using his left hand!


#7 - Barbara McClintock got advice from Maurice Sendak after looking up his number in the phone book and giving him a call! 

She knew she wanted to be an illustrator but wasn't sure how to get started.  They lived hundreds of miles away from each other but she figured it didn't hurt to try.  Not only did he answer the phone, but he took the time to explain how to put together a dummy book and a portfolio.  He discouraged her from going to art school and she followed his advice; she is completely self-taught!


#8 - The inspiration for Rain Reign came to Ann M. Martin after she took her dog Sadie for a walk after Hurricane Irene.  

She recalled how devastating the storm had been in some areas; whole towns were ruined and people were stranded by flooding.  As she walked her dog through her affected neighborhood she wondered what would happen if Sadie got away from her and how she might find her if they got separated. 


#9 - The Baby-sitters Club series was only supposed to consist of four books!

When asked what she loved most about working on the series, she replied that she liked writing for those characters because she felt that she got to know them over time.  What she liked least is that it limited her ability to create new characters which is something she loves to do. 

She is very excited about Raina Telgemeier's new graphic novels based on the books.  When asked how that project started, Ann explained that it was Raina's idea!  She had loved the books when she was growing up!  Ann said that Raina retold the stories in a way that was very true to the originals, but Raina had a way of replacing a lot of the text with her incredible illustrations.  Ann was amazed by how just the look on a character's face could "tell a whole page of text"!



#10 - Amina Weinberg is absolutely adorable beyond reason.

One of the many photos of Jon Scieszka's granddaughter that were sprinkled throughout the presentation!

One of Jon's graphs! (click to enlarge)

I have seen Jon Scieszka present at a previous Rhode Island Book Festival, but this year he co-presented with his son-in-law, author/illustrator Steven Weinberg.  As one would expect the session was hilarious, but there were almost as many "Awwwwwww!"s as there were laughs.  To hear them tell it, Steven had access to the slide show after Jon had completed it, and the proud new father inserted the pics on the sly.  (Of course if that were true, I would wonder why Steven didn't take the opportunity to delete the slides that picked on him for not having sold as many books as his father-in-law!)  

As always, the whole day was so much fun!  There are lots more memories that I could recall, but instead I'll encourage you to go to the next one!  

Thanks so much to Meagan Lenihan and all the organizers who made this event happen!  We are all so grateful!!!

p.s.  I've always taken advantage of an opportunity to get a picture taken with Jon Scieszka at an event because I never know what hilarious face he'll make each time.  This year I took a chance and asked if he wouldn't mind taking a whole bunch of selfies so I could create a collage, and I was not disappointed!  (THANKS, JON!)  And so now I have my most favorite book festival souvenir ever!  May I proudly present:

Seven Silly Scieszka Selfies!