From Dubai with Love
Children’s authors Linda Sue Park (A Single Shard) and John Coy (Hoop Genius: How a Desperate Teacher and a Rowdy Gym Class Invented Basketball) traveled to the United Arab Emirates for a two-week-long visiting authors’ residency at the American School of Dubai, where they worked on writing techniques with elementary, middle-school, and high school students. Their residency wound up this past weekend; here they take a break from teaching and writing to attend the Taste of Dubai food festival.
Beautiful Music
Editor and author David Levithan celebrated the release of his Hold Me Closer: The Tiny Cooper Story (Dutton) on March 17 at Books of Wonder. Levithan shared a stage with Jennifer Niven (l.), author of All the Bright Places (Knopf) and Elizabeth Eulberg, author of We Can Work It Out (Scholastic/Point). The three authors discussed the ways in which music influenced their novels, and then read and performed sections of their books, including a scene between Tiny Cooper (played by Levithan) and his first love interest, Brad, played by Eulberg.
Galley Girls
Author Jonathan Maberry celebrated St. Patrick’s Day at Anderson’s Bookshop warehouse in Aurora, Ill. He attended a pre-publication galley read-along and presentation for Nightsiders #1: The Orphan Army (S&S), which releases on May 19. Students from Naperville-area schools were provided with galleys from Simon & Schuster in anticipation of Maberry’s event. Here, students from Owen Elementary in Naperville prepare to answer a question about the reading. Maberry (with beard) also thinks he has the right answer.
Books on Wheels
About a year ago, May Way for Books, a nonprofit literacy organization in Tucson, Arizona, reached out to Rafael Lopez to see if they could use the artwork from Book Fiesta (HarperCollins), written by Pat Mora and illustrated by Lopez, on the company’s van, which they use to distribute free books for kids. Here, volunteers with Make Way for books show off the newly painted van at the Tucson Festival of Books, held March 14-15.
