by hatfield13

Rochester Children’s Book Festival

This is what it looked like when they opened the doors at 10:00…

…and what it looked like all day long, while several thousand people poured into the festival on the campus of Monroe Community College.

I am in AWE of the volunteers from the Rochester Area Children’s Writers & Illustrators who put this festival together. I’ve never seen so many kids, clutching so many shiny, new, autographed books, looking so excited.  Saturday’s festival was a high-energy, joyful celebration of reading, and I was  thrilled to be a part of it.  I sold out the bookstore’s 50 copies of SPITFIRE and was especially happy to hear that some of those copies are on their way to classrooms & libraries. I met lots of great readers, too!

My family and I came home with a huge pile of books signed by some of our favorite authors as well.

You can’t see her smiling face here, but this is Vivian Vande Velde, my festival table-next-door-neighbor… and this was the view I had of her most of the day!  She signed about a zillion books for excited readers– every one with a huge smile.

Here’s Vivian’s smile!  She’s on the left, with fellow festival organizer Kathleen Blasi on the right.  My E loves American Girl books and other historical fiction, so she was thrilled to have a signed copy of Kathy’s book A Name of Honor.  (She’ll get to read it as soon as I’m done!)

Tedd Arnold was busy signing his zany picture books here, but he signed a copy of his new YA called Rat Life for J.  If you read the review I posted of Rat Life last week, you know how much I loved it.  It’s a great, great book, and I was excited to meet Tedd and tell him how much I enjoyed it.

I was also excited to meet Coleen Murtagh Paratore, since I love the voice in her writing (and because

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  told me I had to go see her.  Coleen says hi, Debbie!)

James Howe had a loooonnng line of people waiting for him to sign when he came back from his presentation.  Here he is, getting started.

Here’s Kathy Blasi (left) with Rebecca Stead (right) , author of First Light, which I’ve heard such good things about and have been dying to read.  Now I have a signed copy waiting for me on the bookshelf.

Michelle Knudsen signed so many copies of Library Lion that they were gone by the time I made it over to take her picture.  This was the only photo I got of Michelle, so I decided to share it, even though her eyes are kind of closed, because she looks so cute anyway.  When my eyes are closed in a photo, I just look sleepy.

I met fellow North Country  Books writer Sally Valentine for the first time on  Saturday, too.  Her book, The Ghost of the Charlotte Lighthouse, was a popular choice, since it’s set near Rochester, NY.



Carol Johmann was still smiling after doing double-duty at the Children’s Book Festival — as both an author and the festival organizer.  Carol is an AMAZING woman whose organizational skills astound me. Thanks, Carol, for EVERYTHING you did to make the festival so fantastic.

Here’s another amazing lady from behind the scenes of the festival… Annie Crane from the Lift Bridge Book Shop in Brockport.  Annie and her staff handled sales at the event and worked tirelessly all day long to make sure everyone had what they needed. Thanks, Annie!

This was such an incredible festival, with so many fun, amazing moments, but there’s one in particular that I have to share…

One ten-year-old boy kept coming back to my table.  I had given him a bookmark and a Spitfire temporary tattoo.  He had tasted the hardtack that I offer up as samples to show kids what life was like on the gunboats during the American Revolution.  We had chatted about the real 12-year-old boy who’s one of Spitfire‘s narrators and what it must have been like for him to be in a battle when he was so  young. 

Finally, the boy came back with his mom and siblings, each of whom carried a single book.  (His sister had Coleen’s The Wedding Planner’s Daughter and was holding it so tightly that you would have needed a crowbar to get it away from her.) 

“Do you see why I’m having trouble choosing?”  he said, looking up at his mom.  And then I understood why he kept leaving and coming back.  In a room with more than fifty authors and hundreds of books, he could choose one.

“I sure do,” she told him.  “But pick the one you think you’ll enjoy the most.”

He nodded.  “I want this one,”  he said, and handed me a copy of Spitfire to sign.  I barely made it through the signature and my thank you to him before the tears came.  He came back one more time a few minutes later, so his aunt could take his picture with me.

No matter how many books follow Spitfire, I think that’s the moment I’ll to remember the most when I think about why I write for kids. 

23 Replies on “Rochester Children’s Book Festival”

  4. Kate, I love that you are enjoying so much making the rounds of signings and festivals and then coming home to tell us all about it. Thank you for that and thank you for sharing with us the story about the little boy!!!

  5. Sounds like it was wonderful! SO cool about the boy who chose your book! YAY! And i’m so glad you met Col! she emailed me today about meeting you! 🙂 I adore her!

  6. OMG, that is WONDERFUL that you sold out and the boy wanted your book! I’m glad I got there early to get my copy. I’m SO HAPPY for you. I should post this on my own LJ, but I walked away with 7 books — 3 for me and 4 board books for a baby’s first bday party. She now has 4 books autographed with special bday wishes to her. It was a great day! I can’t wait to read SPITFIRE.
    🙂
    Deena

  10. Thanks for your comment. This festival was truly unique – SO much energy and excitement about the books. It was a blast just to watch kids walk around.

  15. It was a great post and it looks like a great event! I’ll get the rest of the scoop from Coleen when I see her next!

    Eric

  17. I’m looking forward to your presentation at NYSRA on Thursday! I’m doing the Authors Banquet and presenting on Friday, but I’m free to wander Thursday, so I’ll definitely be at your workshop. Great title, by the way…

  19. I’m looking forward to meeting you as well! I will not be in attendance on Thursday, so we will have to make the most of our Thursday! See you there!

    I’m trying to figure this projector thing out, but I’m worried I wont have it done by Thursday. That is tomorrow’s project. I stink at technology.

    Grr.
    Eric

  20. I’m pretty good with technology if you end up needing a hand. I’ll also have my lcd projector, so there’s a backup available for you if things really go downhill. :^)