2009 Keene State College Children's Literature Festival

In two weeks, I’ll be heading up to New Hampshire for the Keene State College Children’s Literature Festival. Look at the fabulous lineup of children’s authors and illustrators who will be the featured speakers this year:

• Lita Judge
• Beth Krommes
• Lois Lowry
• Katherine Paterson
• Jane Yolen
  

Festival Information
Date: Saturday, October 31, 2009
Place: Keene State College in Keene, New Hampshire
Conference Registration: $72
Lunch: $8.00
Daily Schedule: Click here.
Registration Form: Click here.

2008 Keene State College Children's Literature Festival

The 2008 Keene State College Children’s Literature Festival will be held on Saturday, November 1st. It looks to be another great festival. Just look at the list of speakers!!! I highly recommend this children’s literature event. Come join us in New Hampshire this year. (Click here for the registration form.)

Featured Speakers

(The list below was taken from the Festival Web site.)

Steven Kellogg presented at our very first festival on April 1, 1978. His books are loved by children, and he is known for his energetic and humorous presentations. His beloved harlequin Great Dane inspired Pinkerton, Behave! and his senior cat Secondhand Rose was in its sequel A Rose For Pinkerton. His tall tale titles include Mike Fink, Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, and Johnny Appleseed. He has also done nonfiction work as in If You Made A Million. A new book is Clorinda about a farm cow who goes to the ballet. Steven's website is http://www.stevenkellogg.com/.

Andrew Glass lives in NYC and is a twin. He has illustrated many books for other authors and well as writing and illustrating his own. He is the illustrator of the Appalachian folktale Soap! Soap! Don't Forget the Soap! as well as She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain. He is the illustrator of Eric A. Kimmel's The Erie Canal Pirates. He illustrated The Legend of Strap Buckner and Thank You Very Much, Captain Ericsson. Two of the books he both wrote and illustrated are The Wondrous Whirligig and Bewildered for Three Days: As to Why Daniel Boone Never Wore His Coonskin Cap. For information about Andrew, go to www.answers.com/topic/andrew-glass.

Eric A. Kimmel, of Oregon, has retold so many folktales from around the world that it would be a task of identify them all. Some of his titles include, I Took My Frog To The Library, Hershel And The Hanukka Goblins illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman, several Anansi tales from Africa, from the Ukraine Sirko And The Wolf, from the Middle East Onions & Garlic, from Italy Count Silvernose, from Israel Why The Snake Crawls On Its Belly, and from China The Rooster's Antlers. Eric's web site is http://www.ericakimmel.com/.

Carolyn Coman divides her time between homes in Waymart, PA and South Hampton, NH. Her first novel was Tell Me Everything. For Many Stones she was a National Book Award finalist and a Michael L. Printz Honor Book recipient. What Jamie Saw, a novel about child abuse set in New Hampshire, was a National Book Award finalist and a Newbery Honor Book. The Big House is a funny crime and punishment novel with siblings Ivy and Ray. Its sequel is Sneaking Suspicions. Both of these books have drawings by Rob Shepperson. Coman and Shepperson are currently working on another project.

Rob Shepperson, of Croton-on Hudson, NY will be co-presenting with Carolyn Coman. In addition to their books together, Rob has been the illustrator for other authors' works. Some of these include: Under the Kisseltoe by J. Patrick Lewis, Bugs by David L. Harrison, and Thunderbloom by Charlotte Pomerantz. Rob has a web site at http://www.robshepperson.com/.

Jerry Pinkney is a good friend of Keene State College and has been here several times. He has been creating art for more than 30 and has more than 75 children's books. His truly exceptional art has earned him numerous awards including Caldecott Honors, Correta Scott King Awards, and King Honors. Just a few of his titles are Sam And The Tigers; Black Cowboy, Wild Horses; Drylongso; Mirandy And Brother Wind; and John Henry. His illustrations for Noah's Ark earned him one of his Caldecott Honor Awards in 2003.


More Festival Information

Here’s the daily schedule for a festival.

Click here for directions.

Read A Keene Time in New Hampshire, a blog post about the 2007 Festival written by Liz Goulet Dubois.

Here’s my post about the 2007 Keene State College Children’s Literature Festival.

Owl Unveiling at Keene State College
Children’s author and illustrator Michael Dooling will be at Keene State College in New Hampshire on Saturday, October 25th. Dooling created the one hundredth owl for the Festival Owl Project. There will be a special unveiling of the owl at the college at 3:30 PM. Dooling will then be doing a free presentation on the second floor of Rhodes Hall from 4:00 to 5:00 PM.

(You can read more about the “Keene” owls here.)

Keene State College Children's Literature Festival 2007

Grace Lin, Anna Alter, and I had a great time at the Keene State College Children’s Literature Festival last weekend. I enjoy going up to Keene, which is located in the lovely Monadnock area of New Hampshire. I see familiar faces there. There are always children’s authors and illustrators who attend the conference. In addition to Grace and Anna, other children’s book creators who were there included Alissa Imre Geis, Donna Berger, Liz Goulet Dubois, Cheryl Harness, Beth Krommes, and Melissa Stewart.

Alissa Imre Geis, Anna Alter, & Melissa Stewart

Here’s the list of Featured Speakers for the 2007 Festival: Michael Dooling, Kathy Mallat, Richard Peck, Natalie Kinsey-Warnock, and Chris Soentpiet.

Kathy Mallat, an author and illustrator of picture books and a part-time art teacher, was a last minute fill-in for Raymond Bial. Kathy did a great job! I don’t know how she was able to put together such a polished presentation in just a few days. Like me, Kathy also serves as a member of the Festival Advisory Board.

Kathy Mallat & Dr. David White

Natalie Kinsey-Warnock strode to the front of the auditorium playing the bagpipes. She made a great presentation—and brought several of the beautiful handmade quilts her grandmother had sewn. Natalie lives out in the country in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. She has a whole menagerie of pets. She rescues animals that have been mistreated or abused.

Natalie Kinsey-Warnock Playing the Bagpipes

Richard Peck received a standing ovation for his eloquent—and outrageously funny—presentation. I jotted down some of his most memorable lines. (I hope I wrote them down correctly.)

• The only way you can write is by the light of the bridges burning behind you.
• You learn most from the experiences you would have avoided if you could.
• Puberty is the death of childhood…not the birth of reason.
• Fiction had better be about the reader—not the writer.
• Fiction is a metaphor for a reader’s life.
• We read fiction to find family.
• Schools don’t build foundations; they build upon foundations.
• Humor is anger that was sent to finishing school.
• Quoting Cicero: Not to know what happened before you were born means to remain always a child.
  

Grace, Anna, Alissa, and I visited the Festival Gallery Collection. We saw the owls that Anna and Alissa had created for the Festival Owl Project. Abigail Marble contributed OWL #87 to the collection. That means that Dr. David White, Festival Director, needs just 13 more owls to reach his goal of 100 owls for the Centennial Celebration of Keene State College in 2008-2009. Grace has decided that it’s time to start work on her “Keene” owl.

Grace, Elaine, Anna, & Alissa

Three Really "Keene" OwlsEric Carle's Owl

Anna Alter's Owl

Alissa Imre Geis's Owl

After the conclusion of the festival, the featured speakers, members of the festival advisory board, student volunteers, artists who had donated an owl in the past year, and David and some close friends joined together for a sumptuous dinner of prime rib, bake stuffed shrimp, stuffed portabella mushrooms, rice pilaf, fresh vegetable medley, and individual almond tortes served with fresh strawberries, balsamic vinegar, and whipped cream.

Donna Berger, Chris Soentpiet, & Eric DuboisAnna, Alissa, & Grace

We capped off a wonderful day with a visit to David & Ken's Irish cottage.

I can’t wait for the 2008 Keene State College Children’s Literature Festival. I bet you’d like to know who the speakers will be, wouldn’t you? Here’s the lineup: Steven Kellogg, Andrew Glass, Eric A. Kimmel, Polly Horvath, and Jerry Pinkney!