bus them to a community college in
southeastern Washington on a Friday morning in March and let them spend the day
listening to, learning from — and occasionally crying over meeting — 16 prominent
YA authors from across the United States. What you get, according to Pura Belpré-winning Texas author
Guadalupe Garcia McCall, “is a buzzing, lively hive where both students and
authors can meet to discuss the most important of interests: reading good
books.”
(Guadalupe Garcia McCall and student)
The lively hive has a name, Cavalcade of Authors, and it’s an
annual event founded in 2008 by second-generation school librarian Michelle
Lane. A librarian at Enterprise Middle School in Richland, Lane came up with
the idea for Cavalcade of Authors the previous fall while attending the annual Pacific
Northwest Writers Conference in Portland, Ore.
(Michele Lane)
Lane
said she spent her entire 220-mile drive home from Portland refining her plan.
Six months later, seven authors and 70 students gathered at Enterprise for the
inaugural Cavalcade of Authors. As news spread, more schools and authors
jumped on board and the event eventually had to be moved across the Tri-Cities
to Columbia Basin Community College.
Signing up to attend Cavalcade of Authors does not entitle
students to a Monopoly-like get-out-of-school-free card. In fact, attending
actually creates more homework. To
qualify for Cavalcade, each student must have read at least one book from each
of four of that year’s featured authors.
Students who read at least eight books were given a T-shirt
to wear to the event. The sea of teens wearing shirts adorned with the motto
“Read for Life” filling the school’s auditorium at the end of the 2013 event,
held March 1, proved that students went above and beyond the qualification
requirement.
As if a free T-shirt was not enough, students were given
extra incentive to read more in 2013. Doing so entered their name in a drawing
for one of two NOOK Simple Touch Readers, both donated by the local Barnes
& Noble. The store also hosted a well-attended book signing featuring all
16 authors the night before the main event, and donated 10 percent of each
Cavalcade-related book sold back to the cause.
(Veronica Rossi with students)
Although she now has more than five years invested in
Cavalcade of Authors, Lane’s primary goal remains the same as it was during her
brainstorming car ride home from Portland in 2007. “Our goal is to create an authentic writing-conference experience for our students in grades 6-12, where writers come together to discuss their craft,”she said. “Students who still are attending Cavalcade and have been with us since we started have been introduced to 50 different authors. The sixth-graders who started this year — if they stay with us through their senior year — will have been introduced to around 100 different authors.”
(Check out Cavalcade Author's Hall of Fame)With strong local media coverage and growing coverage from across the region, it does not appear Cavalcade of Authors will be doing anything but expanding in the near future. That is fine with Lane, who envisions a three-day event attended by students from across Washington and northeastern Oregon. It could be held in various geographic regions. A majority of those who have seen and experienced the Tri-Cities-based Cavalcade of Authors appear to support Lane in her quest. So do the authors who have seen firsthand the changes they can make in students’ lives.
“Cavalcade
of Authors was the kind of event where readers and writers could share in their
love of books,” said Jonathan Maberry, a New
York Times best-selling author and a featured Cavalcade presenter in 2013. “Fast-paced,
lots of fun, and a great learning experience for everyone, including the pros
there as guests. [It was] a high-water mark for all such events.”
Gregg Olsen, another New
York Times best-selling author and 2013 attendee agreed. “I can’t
think of a better, more impactful experience than what occurs between authors
and young readers at the Cavalcade of Authors,” Olsen said. “Small groups.
Large groups. Literary. Popular fiction. Nonfiction. Everything and everyone
comes together in a crazy, cool mix. Simply put, this is one festival that does
what so many others promise — it brings everyone face to face. I will never
forget it.”
“They’re known all around the world for their books and I
actually get to go home and say I met an author,” a Chiawana High School
ninth-grader named Elena said at the end of the 2013 Cavalcade of Authors. “If
someone’s reading a book, [I can say], ‘I’ve met that author.’ That’s so cool.
This is the best day ever.”
Links:
Cavalcade of Authors website
Thank you, Jeff for your terrific article!
Love Libraries? Give a Roar in “Comments” below.
Note to Librarians: If you’re a Youth Librarian working in a
school or public library we’d love to hear about you and your library. Contact
Janet at jlcarey@hotmail.com for an
interview slot.
