This week, Jason Segel appears grave; children’s authors retreat; Debbie Levy dissents; Gilbert Ford goes on display; YA gets some love in Pasadena; and Jennifer Lynn Alvarez celebrates an end and a new beginning.
Seriously Creepy
Copperfield’s Books in Petaluma, Calif., hosted an event on September 14 for actor and children’s author Jason Segel to welcome The Lost Lullaby, the third book in his Nightmares! series, co-written with Kirsten Miller. In keeping with the novel’s spooky theme, Copperfield’s arranged to hold the reception for Segel in the cemetery located behind Liberty Elementary School, which is also a favorite spot for authors to visit. Here, attendees attempt to put on their most somber, graveyard faces – with mixed results.
Into the Woods
Children’s book authors recently gathered for a wilderness writing retreat held at Elbow Lake Lodge in northern Minnesota. The inaugural LoonSong retreat was hosted by author Debby Dahl Edwardson and co-sponsored by Jane Buchanan and Marion Dane Bauer in partnership with Vermont College of Fine Arts. From left, Katherine Paterson (who delivered the keynote address at the gathering) sits with Will Alexander and Kekla Magoon – who didn’t get the memo about the blue shirt.
Making Her Mark
Debbie Levy celebrated the publication of her picture book I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark on September 20 at Politics & Prose in Washington, DC. Elizabeth Baddeley provided the book’s illustrations. At the event, guests took part in a Ruth Bader Ginsburg pop quiz and enjoyed I Dissent-themed cupcakes.
Marvelous Things!
Gilbert Ford celebrated the release of The Marvelous Thing That Came from a Spring: The Accidental Inventions of the Toy That Swept the Nation on September 18 at Books of Wonder in Manhattan. Ford also created the bookstore’s window display (seen here) based on the book, a process that he chronicled on his blog.
An Epic Series Ends
Jennifer Lynn Alvarez (front, center) celebrated the release of the fourth book in her Guardian Herd series, Windborn, on September 21. The event was held at Pages Books on the Green in Windsor, Calif. Readers in attendance received Guardian Herd swag and each got a Breyer horse to play with as Alvarez shared her books and discussed horse breed colorations with the crowd. A new trilogy, featuring existing Guardian Herd characters, will launch in fall 2017.
For the Love of YA
Pasadena Central Library in California hosted the third annual book festival, Pasadena Loves YA, on September 17. Nineteen YA authors were present at the festival as well as close to 300 attendees. Here, authors (from l.) Frank Beddor, Elizabeth Briggs, Cecil Castellucci, Eric Laster, and Thomas Voorhies speak on a sci-fi author panel called “This World of Ours.”
