This week, a monster crashes a book event; publishing house staffers show team spirit; Jackie Robinson lives on in print and film; a book fest draws young readers; a nonfiction writer receives a high honor; and a debut author celebrates.
Monster Mash
Itcher, a “scrapkins” monster featured in author Brian Yanish’s Scrapkins: Junk-Rethunk: Amazing Creations You Can Build From Junk (Holt), was the center of attention at a launch for Yanish’s activity book, which encourages kids to make inventive use of recyclable materials and other “junk.” The event was held at BookCourt in Brooklyn on April 2.
What a Team!
Candlewick staffers held a group reading of Kate DiCamillo’s Raymie Nightingale in their Somerville, Mass., offices. In addition to sporting matching Raymie Nightingale shirts, the group passed around a baton, channeling the team spirit of the book’s three baton-twirling “Rancheros.”
Honoring a Legend…
Sharon Robinson, daughter of Jackie Robinson, attended a preview event of filmmaker Ken Burns’s upcoming documentary on the groundbreaking baseball player. The event took place at the Schomburg Center in New York City on April 4. Here, Robinson signs a copy of her book The Hero Two Doors Down (Scholastic Press) for Burns, which is based on the true story of a Jewish boy who became acquainted with her father in 1948.
Little Darlings
Regardless of a rainy California weekend, the Disney booth at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books held at the University of Southern California campus on April 9-10 saw a large turnout, as young readers came to peruse through books and merchandise on display. Here two girls take a look at A Wisher’s Guide to Starland from Disney’s Star Darlings franchise.
A Top Honor
On April 9, Tonya Bolden was presented with the Children’s Book Guild of Washington, D.C.’s 2016 Nonfiction Book Award at Clyde’s Restaurant of Gallery Place. After the presentation, Bolden (l.) met with fellow authors and booksellers, including Jewell Stoddard of Politics and Prose.
A ‘Crow’-ning Achievement
Biologist and author Thor Hanson celebrated the release of his first children’s book, Bartholomew Quill (Little Bigfoot), about a crow that seeks to learn about its identity, at Secret Garden Books in Seattle on April 8. The book’s illustrator, Dana Arnim, joined him; here, the two are pictured with Amelia, Arnim’s four-year-old niece.
