LIBRARY MEDIA SPECIALISTS ROAR!

Welcome to Library Lions interviews Raising a Roar for libraries and the outstanding librarians serving youth in schools and public libraries across the U.S. Please Roar today’s guest Library Media Specialist, Julie Hembree! This is the first of two posts with Julie Hembree. Welcome Julie!

 

I’m the Library Media Specialist at Bell Elementary in Kirkland, Washington, which is located in the suburbs of Seattle. This is my 9^th year as a librarian after many years as a classroom teacher. We are a K-5 school with about 340 students. After being in the midst of a two year construction period, our old school was torn down in the summer and our new school opened in September.

The library is on the second floor with huge windows where we can view the playground and trees that surround the property. We have reading posters all over our walls celebrating reading, lots of fun cubes and couches to sit on and great display areas to showcase books.

Our students come to the library every week for 30 minutes in grades K-2 and every other week for 60 minutes in grades 3-5. We are also open during all of the recesses for kids to come to find books, read, research, play board games or do homework. It’s a busy place and there’s always a hum of voices in the background.

 The Skinny

What I love about my work is that I get paid to be a reading and technology cheerleader! I believe that my job is to sell the importance of reading and research. To do that I try to merchandize the “reading product” in fun and engaging ways. I try to make sure my students understand that they are part of a global reading community by taking part in larger activities such as International Dot Day or World Read Aloud Day. We have bright book displays that draw students into the library from the busy hallways.

My students and I love to make book trailers to showcase new or well-loved books in our library. I have found that this type of visual advertising really connects with kids. As soon as the trailer is over, the arguments begin about who gets the book first! Using technology makes my job as a reading advocate so much easier because I am talking the language of today’s digital learners. The students also find making trailers a fun and engaging way to share books they love with other students.

Our trailers are hosted on our Bulldog ReaderBlog where anyone can view them. I also have a great time showing other librarians and teachers at conferences the process to make their own trailers. We are all connected and the more we share with one another, the more it positively impacts our students.

Why are libraries important

Libraries are vital in schools because they are nurturing the imagineers of our future. Libraries are the place where anyone can freely come to seek information, become engrossed in a book or daydream about what could be. In an age where classroom lessons are becoming increasingly prescripted, the library is one of the few places where creativity has a home. Everyone is trying to find the way to obtain test scores that match or exceed the students in Asia and Finland. In that pursuit of test scores, creativity and innovation is shoved to the side.

Yet, creativity and innovation are the hallmarks of our country. Innovators are developed in libraries where a student can lose themselves in a book or research the background for ideas that are important to them. When we lose libraries, we lose a piece of our future.

Library Laughs

Once a year we have a favorite character day. Everyone, students and staff included, is encouraged to dress up as a favorite book character. I have dressed as Little Red Riding Book, Captain Underpants and Viola Swamp.

In the week before the event there is a reading buzz around the school as kids and staff have conversations about who they will choose and how they will dress up as that character. I never reveal who I will be ahead of time.  It’s hysterical to overhear whispered conversations as kids speculate what character I will choose for the year. One year, I thought I had kept my ideas firmly to myself. Yet, on Favorite Character Day, I found that I had lots of company when I arrived as Fancy Nancy! Twenty girls also came dressed in their finest Fancy Nancy clothes. It’s too bad that Jane O’Connor wasn’t here to see all that glitz and glamor!

Author! Author!

I’ve had some fabulous opportunities to meet a variety of authors. This fall I was part of Kirby Larson’s book launch for Duke at Third Place Books.

A few years ago Matt Holm came to our school and entertained all of us with his Babymouse stories and drawings. The kids talked about him for weeks afterwards. The Babymouse books are still some of the most popular books in the library.

We have had large author assemblies, and author Skype visits. However, we had the perfect author visit nearly two years ago when Katherine Applegate came to our school. This was a year before she won the Newbery Award. A student had given me a copy of The One and Only Ivan, insisting that I read it right away. I took it home and fell in love with Ivan that night. I made a book trailer for Ivan and put it on YouTube. Somehow Katherine Applegate saw it and wrote to me sharing how much she enjoyed the trailer and asking if she could visit our school the next time she was in Seattle.

Her visit was a wonder from beginning to end. She shared her story in a dynamic slideshow about how she developed the Ivan story with photos that were both age appropriate and engaging. She had lunch with a group of students and talked with them, answering their questions about her life as an author. She signed books and allowed students to have their picture taken with her.

We tried our best to treat her like a rockstar and she captivated us with her stories and love for her work. It was a magical day. This year we are looking forward to some graphic and mystery fun when Jarrett Krosoczka, author of the Lunch Lady and Platypus Police Squad series visits in February!

One last big roar

I’d like to make a big roar to all the librarians and teachers who come early and stay late to make sure that kids have what they need to be successful. They not only work hard to make a difference for the students in their classrooms and libraries, but they also share their ideas with others. It’s through collaboration that we can learn from one another and strengthen how we teach.

Let’s Link

Blog: I would love your visitors to know about the Bulldog Reader’s Blog where I share ideas about books, library lessons and technology. Here is the URL: http://bellbulldogreaders.edublogs.org/

Twitter: I love connecting with other librarians and educators on Twitter where I’m known as @mrs_hembree

Thank you Janet for giving librarians a chance to roar about the importance of reading and libraries!

And thank you Julie for your terrific interview!

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. 

 

AUTHOR JIM WHITING ROARS FOR LIBRARIES

Welcome to Library Lions interviews Raising a Roar for libraries and the outstanding librarians serving youth in schools and public libraries across the U.S. Author, Jim Whiting  
joins us today to Roar for Libraries from an Author’s perspective. Welcome, Jim!

First what’s your Roar for Libraries?
I admire librarians for their dedication to their jobs and the amount of work they do for wages that are nowhere near commensurate with their contributions to society.

The Skinny: Thanks for the first Roar. I know you have more below, but before we go there, can you tell us something about yourself and your work?   

I tend to view myself as the Harold Stassen, Dennis Kucinich, or Ron Paul (depending on your age) of kids writing—someone definitely out of the mainstream but who hangs in with a dogged persistence. Which is to say, I write nonfiction for young people, almost all of it on a work-for-hire basis. Definitely not the glory side of the business.

In previous lifetimes, I published Northwest Runner magazine for 17 years, advised a high school newspaper, wrote the first piece of original fiction in Runner’s World magazine, generated a lot of stuff for America Online in the days when AOL was relevant, served as sports editor a couple of times for our local newspaper, cranked out hundreds of freelance articles for newspapers and magazines, even journeyed to Antarctica where I was the official photographer for the Antarctica Marathon.

(I thought I'd pop in the cover of your history of Antarctic Exploration book here Jim)

Now, in addition to writing and editing (which was actually how I broke into KidLit), I coach middle school running on Bainbridge. What was originally a fall competitive team has spun off into several additional programs that span all four seasons.

I got into kids writing after being fired from a dot.com company (which soon afterward followed me into oblivion). I’ve always wanted to thank the guy who axed me. If I hadn’t lost my job at that exact moment in time, I wouldn’t have spotted the advertisement from a small kid’s nonfiction house that was looking for a freelance editor. I responded, they sent me a book about Tiger Woods (back in the days when he was famous only for golf), and liked my work. That led to more editing work, and eventually to authoring. Charles Schulz was my inaugural effort. Since then, I’ve written about 180 books (and definitely still counting), with topics ranging from (A)ntarctica to Z(ionism). At the moment I’m working on books about Islam and European soccer, with editing projects that include Asian countries, scifi, fantasy, and a chapter book about ants and an obnoxious cousin.

Here are a few covers:

 

Find many more of Jim's books here 

Library Love When You Were A Cub:
Because our public library was right across the street from my elementary school, we often took mini-field trips there. I loved to browse through the stacks, always finding treasures that I would take to the reading tables and read happily until it was time to go back to school.

More Library Love

I am blessed to live in an area served by the Kitsap Regional Library, which encompasses eight branches in addition to my home library on Bainbridge Island. Because I write nonfiction, I am continually doing research. While I scour the Internet, I grew up without it and my first loyalty is to books. Our system almost always seems to have plenty of materials on whatever subject I happen to be writing about.

Since I read a lot of nonfiction for pleasure, sometimes this reading suggests topics. And it’s not uncommon for me to read something, then be given an assignment months or even years later on the same subject so I have a running start on the research. And even if that doesn’t happen, whatever reading I do – whether fiction or nonfiction – keeps my mind active and supple.

 

Author’s Roar:Funding for libraries, especially school libraries, is currently under threat. As an author, what are your thoughts about that?  

I’m appalled, on several levels. First, as mentioned above, since I am so dependent on KRL for research, funding cuts threaten my livelihood by reducing the amount of research materials that may be available on a given topic.

Second, it’s well-documented that this country is continually falling behind in educational achievements. Shrinking library budgets mean cutbacks in hours that libraries are open and therefore available for patrons, as well as reductions in the ability of libraries to maintain their inventory and keep it up to date.

Third, I sometimes hear people say, “Well, I don’t use the library. Let the users pay for it.” I’m sure that people like that don’t have any problem with having the streets they use maintained by taxpayers. Even though I will never use those streets, I don’t have issues with my taxes going to projects like that. It helps to maintain a strong and vibrant infrastructure. There’s also a strong likelihood that people with that mindset are the same ones who say things like “I don’t want the government messing with my Medicare” or who call Barack Obama or George W. Bush “Nazis.” Anyone who reads my Holocaust book (or anyone else’s) would realize how absurd the comparison is. While such people aren’t likely to patronize a library, it’s vital to have libraries available in the event that they do. They might actually learn something.

A Lion’s Pride of Programs:
Since I spend most of my workdays in front of a computer with impending deadlines spurring me on, it’s easy to forget that there are real flesh and blood readers out there. It’s a huge boost to stand in front of a classroom or an assembly with several hundred kids and bask in their warmth and affection. It’s also fun to go into classrooms and interact with smaller groups. I will always remember two second grade girls who hugged each other when I read a couple of selections from a series of scary stories.

 

 

 

Hooray for ALA!  Equipped with my resume, list of published titles, copies of reviews, etc., I’ve attended several ALA conventions, and hooked up with publishers who otherwise would have been closed to me. Nothing like a personal chat with editors and publishers to help sell them on the idea of throwing work my way. For the cost of day passes and a couple of nights in hotel rooms, I can trace about a third of my output to contacts I made at those conventions. Too bad that my stock portfolio doesn’t have the same return on investment.

Let’s Link Up:
Learn more about Jim Whiting and his work on his website: http://www.jimwhiting.com

Thank you, Jim, for your terrific interview!

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. 

 

Welcome to Library Lions special edition Banned BooksWeek ! One of our favorite posts of the year! http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/  

 

Teen Services Librarian, Wally Bubelis, has joined us to Roar for Banned Books Week. Welcome Wally Bubelis!

 

The Skinny: First tell us about yourself and your library
I’m a Teen Services Librarian at the West Seattle Branch of The Seattle Public Library. 

I’ve been working in teen services for 15 years and am proud to say I’m the last of the original hires when The Seattle Public Library began Young Adult Services in 1998.  There were seven of us hired to begin this service division, and the rest have moved into other areas of library service.  I was the teen booklist coordinator for a decade or so, and I’ve been an editor and writer for our teen blog, Push To Talk, since we began in 2007.

Tell us about Banned Books Week:

Banned Books Week is probably my favorite library-oriented celebration.  I try to read something that’s been banned or challenged every year around the big week.  I like picking up things that were challenged years ago, even if I usually cannot see what the fuss is about; the perspective time gives us illuminates the transitory nature of values, beliefs, and mores, things we usually think of as eternal.  Last year, I read Kate Chopin’s proto-feminist classic, The Awakening.  What seemed to be the issue was her independent mind, her willingness to leave her family behind to pursue her own desires.  She’s a selfish woman in many respects, but her rebellion against her society’s strictures still holds a charge.  This year, I’m rereading Allen Ginsberg’s long poem, Howl.  I recently watched the film adaption with James Franco as Ginsberg, and really liked how it opened up the poem with a dramatic version of the obscenity trial and animations in conjunction with long sections of the poem.

Can you showcase some displays for us?

My branch, an old Carnegie library, does not serve displays well, and I’ve often let it slide, at least in my teen area.  This year, though, my teen volunteer Lexie and I put together a sort of Top Ten Banned Teen Books.  We display each of the books face forward along with a short annotation, a list of the reasons why it’s been banned or challenged, and a six-word summary for readers who just can’t wait any longer to get their hands on the book.  I’m also including the other displays we did this year for adult and children’s materials.

 

 

What do you do to spread the word about Banned Books Week and Intellectual Freedom Issues?
For many years, I worked with our local theatre group, Book-It Theatre, to bring one of their Danger! Books programs to the middle school I work with.  They would perform a section out of three challenged books (line by line, including the little parts like “he said, she said”), full of drama and gestures and even funny voices, if the piece required it.  The students were always hooked on these performances, and then we’d have a short discussion afterwards beginning with a reading of the First Amendment and then moving into the reasons these books were challenged and how it was always a complex issue, because of people’s different values.

Seattle Public Library has a podcast of one of these performances, from 2009, here: PODCAST

I also write for our teen blog, Push To Talk.  Last year, I created a series of posts that featured a different teen title each day of Banned Books Week. Push To Talk Banned Books

Readers Roar: Let’s hear what kids and teens have to say about banned books

 

[This part is from Lexie, my teen volunteer, 15 years old.]

Libraries are an essential part of our culture because they grant everyone access to books and media that are expensive or unavailable otherwise. Libraries form a community and encourage others to read. They are a vital support for those who wish to learn and a resource for all ages. Books can be anything you’re looking for, or something completely unexpected. They can be friends, teachers, a hiding place, or a way to express who you are. Books open a gate to other cultures, build a path to other worlds, take you back to your roots, and then lead you home, a slightly different person. I believe that books are a necessary way to explore the limits of imagination.

When a book is banned, it doesn’t protect people from bad ideas, it locks the door to a separate story. People shouldn’t be able to define “good” and “evil” for everyone else*. It’s your own job to establish your morals and values, and everyone has to do this themselves. Forcing your own on someone else is like taking away their opportunity to be their own person. People should be free to warn others and discourage them from reading certain books, because that’s free speech, and some may heed that. But they should be free to form their own opinions, whether they agree or not.

*This leads on to ethics, agreed-on morals, and global consensus. I will leave my rant about this untyped and simply thought.

 Any Banned Books you would like to highlight?

Even though I’m a teen librarian and I live in the same town as Sherman Alexie, I’d like to highlight Dav Pilkey’s series that starts with Captain Underpants. 

 

This series has done more to promote a love of reading among a certain age group than any other book or series I can think of.  Little kids – boys and girls – just love a book that uses words like “fart” and “poopypants.”  Their parents will often roll their eyes just a bit, but if I ever meet a really young, reluctant reader with a frustrated parent, I direct the family to Captain Underpants, who consistently saves the day.

What can Library Lions blog readers do for Banned Books Week?
Pick up a title that’s been challenged, especially in your community, and read it.  Read it with no expectations of liking it or disliking it, wanting to protect it or wanting to ban it.  It’s OK.  Just enjoy it for what the author intended.  I like the older titles for perspective, as I said, but the current targets need support too. 

Library Lion’s Roar: ONE LAST BIG ROAR

IFACTION listserv. I get the daily digest of news headlines in my email.  The moderators categorize the news into different sections, highlighting all the different ways our access to information, knowledge, discussion, and the workings of our government and media are supported or stifled.  Even if you don’t read all the articles, a scan of the headlines gives you a good idea of what’s going on in the world and who wants to control what information you can access.

Let’s Link:

Librarian Blog and/or Library Blog: http://blog.spl.org/yablog/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SeattlePublicLibrary?ref=ts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SPLBuzz

 

Thanks again for the terrific Banned Books Week interview, Wally, and thanks also to Lexie for her contribution!

I invite LL readers to click on the website for Banned Books Week and check out all the events going on across the US week. Facebook, Tweet #BannedBooksWeek, and spread the word!

BRILLIANT BLOGGER JEAN BOOK NERD SHARES LIBRARY LOVE

Welcome to Library Lions interviews Raising a Roar for libraries and the outstanding librarians across the U.S. Please Roar today’s guest, Jean Vallesteros. Jean, creator of the amazing book blog, JeanBookNerd  (definitely one of the hottest book blogs out there), is here to share her book love and library love with us! Welcome Jean!   

Tell us how your blog got started:Having many fond childhood memories at my local library, reading has always been an important part of my upbringing and had carried over towards my adult life.

In early summer of 2011, I decided to open up a blog just to share my thoughts and ideas about the books that I was reading. Unbeknownst to me, there was a huge community of book lovers on the Internet. It was great! Being able to discuss the books that I had been reading with others, I really didn’t know what to expect but it turned out for the best. Also getting the chance to meet new people along the way and develop some great friendships.
I was reading Tiger’s Curse by Colleen Houck and I instantly fell in love with the series.

This is when I began to wonder how amazing it would be to get to know the author and receive answers to my questions about her work first-hand from the creator. In an effort to reach out to Mrs. Houck, a reply came back to me almost instantly!

She was extremely humble and easy to talk to, making the conversation (not to mention my first effort in speaking directly with an acclaimed author) much more comfortable. From there on the wheels kept turning and I realized that this communication between myself and a well known author could be a great event to share with my growing number of followers. Furthermore, I would like thank Colleen Houck and Katie of Sterling Publishing for donating items for my giveaway and for giving me the opportunity to share it with everyone. It is because of them that my blog is the way it is now.

Sharing my passion with others is very rewarding. My blog has allowed me to share my love of reading at a global scale with people who are just as passionate as me.

Jean with D.J. MacHale author of the Pendragon series 

On my blog, followers can find fun, exciting, and interesting author interviews and insights on the latest book titles. You can join in on the discussions and participate in exciting giveaways.

Jean with Michael Scott, author of The Alchemyst 

  JeanBookNerd is an interactive blog that promotes the importance of reading and the invaluable rewards that only reading can bring.

Jean with Melissa Marr author of Wicked Lovely 

Janet: I love visiting your site, Jean. It’s definitely one of my favorites. I always find more great books to read and authors to follow. Your generous site makes the book community come alive.

Library Love When You Were a Cub The library was a huge part of my childhood. It allowed my imagination to explore an assortment of amazing places and introduced me to many interesting characters. The library became like a second home to me and my permanent home every summer.

Jean’s son, Jordan

I remember the excitement that would overcome me whenever I stepped into the library. I spent most of my younger days sitting in the aisles and easily getting lost in the stories, the adventures, the characters and the settings that came bursting from within the pages and pulling me into them, allowing me to journey through my own imagination.

At some point, I had also discovered comic books as an alternative form of literature and became an avid subscriber to Marvel, Archie, DC, Disney and many more. It became an amazing form of entertainment for my growing mind and an outlet for my creativity as a youth.

Even now as I have matured into an adult, I still find appreciation in all styles of storytelling including but not limited to stories of horror, suspense, drama, mystery, action and romance.

I have always appreciated the positive contributions the library has had on my childhood. With nieces, nephews and young children in my life, I use the library as another venue for them to pick up invaluable education and life skills.  

Blogger’s Roar: Funding for libraries, especially school libraries, is currently under threat. As a book blogger, what are your thoughts about that? 

Many people don’t know the other services libraries provide. One service that is beneficial to our youth is that they offer free tutoring. Hiring private tutors is costly but this free service allows for everyone to get help and imprint a positive impact on students’ academic performances.

Let’s Link Up
Website/Blog: www.jeanbooknerd.com & www.booknerdtours.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BookNerdCommunity

Thank you, Jean for your terrific interview!

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. 

THREE CHEERS FOR CAVALCADE!

Welcome to Library Lions interviews Raising a Roar for libraries and the outstanding librarians across the U.S. Today we’re celebrating Cavalcade of Authors Part 2 with Jeff Burlingame's article recently featured in the magazine The Medium. 

 

Jeff Burlingame (showing his prized Cavalcade tee shirt) is the NAACP Image Award-winning author of more than 20 nonfiction books for both teens and adults. He also was one of Cavalcade’s featured authors this year. 

 Take nearly 1,000 middle school and high school students from seven districts in two states,

 

 

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)

 

“I was listening to science-fiction author Tim Zahn talk about how he would much rather discuss and teach writing at a visit than talk about himself,” Lane said. “He went on to mention the Teen Book Festival in Rochester, N.Y., where the librarians brought authors together to talk to kids about their books. I thought, ‘I could do that at my school!’” 

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.

 

(Front Row Left to Right: Michelle Lane (Director), D.J. MacHale, Jeff Burlingame, Holly Cupala, Suzanne Selfors, Maureen McQuerry, Lisa McMann, Veronica Rossi, Brandon Dorman, and Kelly Milner Halls. Back Row: Jonathan Maberry, Gregg Olsen, Jonathan Auxier, Trent Reedy, Chris Crutcher, and Brandon Mull. Guadalupe Garcia McCall not pictured)

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.  

                                   (Kelly Milner Halls workshop) 

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.

(D.J. MacHale)

                                   (Veronica Rossi with students)

 

The chain bookseller was hardly the only company to contribute to Cavalcade. Local businesses donated food, gave a discount on hotel rooms for the authors, and prizes for the top three finishers in two grade-defined writing contests for students. Grants also helped pay the bills, which included transportation costs and honorariums for the authors, many of which donated their time or dramatically reduced their appearance fees to contribute to the unique event. Lane’s total budget in 2013 was roughly $25,000. Volunteers, including Lane’s fellow librarians, teachers, community activists and even students, staffed the event.

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.

                                   (Jonathan Maberry's workshop)

“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's workshop)

 

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.”

 The students got as much out of the event as the authors.

 

“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.