This week, an author-illustrator comes face-to-face with his characters; authors celebrate indie bookstores and dangerous ladies; a book’s bunny ninja inspires three other little bunnies; and an author has a busy few days of festivities.

Larger Than Life!

Author-illustrator David Shannon took a trip to Abilene, Tex., for an exhibition of his artwork at the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature and the Children’s Art & Literacy Festival. Events included a parade with characters from Shannon’s books, an artist talk, and a book signing. Here, Shannon is joined by two life-size characters from his books, David (from No, David!) and Fergus (from Good Boy, Fergus) as well as artist Steve Neves, who created sculptures of David and Fergus (also pictured) and his daughter, Zoe.

She’s Dang-er-ous!

Authors (from l.) Megan Shepherd (The Cage, Harper); Megan Miranda (Soulprint, Bloomsbury); Renee Ahdieh (The Wrath and the Dawn, Putnam); Carrie Ryan (Daughter of Deep Silence, Dutton); and Gwenda Bond (Lois Lane: Fallout, Capstone), dropped in at Parnassus Books in Nashville as part of their four-city Dangerous Ladies book tour, which grew out of a desire to visit favorite independent bookstores across the country, while celebrating their new books.

Cute Attack!

Betty from the blog Book Rock Betty and her three children (the “Baby Bettys”) made a video retelling of one of their favorite new books, debut author-illustrator Jennifer Gray Olson’s Ninja Bunny (Knopf). In their video, the three dress as bunnies and learn how to become ninjas just like the book’s lagomorph protagonist.

Not Just Surviving, but Thriving…

Author Lyn Miller-Lachmann celebrated the release of her YA novel, Surviving Santiago (Running Press), a sequel to Gringolandia (Curbstone Press, 2009), at Bluestockings Bookstore in New York City on June 11. A few days previous, Lachmann also held a PEN America dinner at her residence. The gathering celebrated the end of the school year for the PEN Children’s Committee, in which Lyn is an active member and blog coordinator.