FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, August 22, 2018
Press Contacts:
Beth Parker
Beth Parker Public Relations
beth@bethparker.com
Blockbuster Lineup – Beloved Children’s Book Authors and Illustrators take Stage at Annual
Brooklyn Book Festival Children’s Day
Saturday, September 15, 2018
from 10a.m. – 4p.m.
Award-winning children’s book authors and illustrators are set to wow young fans with readings, workshops and performances on Saturday 9/15
Young Adult authors will appear at Brooklyn Book Festival Sunday 9/16 in Downtown Brooklyn
BROOKYLN, NY—Wednesday, August 22, 2018—The much anticipated annual Brooklyn Book Festival’s Children’s Day promises a full day of literary fun for young readers. Taking place Saturday, September 15, 2018 from 10a.m. – 4p.m. at MetroTech Commons in Downtown Brooklyn, this event devoted to kid lit boasts authors and illustrators from every shelf—from picture books to chapter books to graphic novels. Writers at Children’s Day will include best-selling authors Mac Barnett, LeUyen Pham, Kate Schatz and Miriam Klein Stahl, Vashti Harrison, Eliot Schrefer, Soman Chainani, debut authors Brigit Young, Sayantani DasGupta, Andrea Tsurumi, and award-winning authors Gordon C. James, Renée Watson, Chris Grabenstein, Pablo Cartaya, and Meg Medina among many more talented authors and illustrators.
Click here for a full roster of Children’s Day events.
Authors will read, draw and perform to bring beloved books to life at the Picture Book Stage at MetroTech Commons. Be sure to head over to see: Duo Caldecott Medalists Dan Santat and Minh Lê, Tad Hills, the New York Times best-selling author of Duck & Goose, Honk! Quack! Boo!, and debut author and illustrator Andrea Tsurumi presenting Accident! Don’t miss Ame Dyckman and Scott Magoon (Misunderstood Shark), Jessica Love (Julián Is a Mermaid), Isabel Roxas and Alexandra Penfold (The Littlest Viking), Jordan Crane (We Are All Me), David Ezra Stein (Interrupting Chicken and the Elephant of Surprise). All authors and illustrators will sign books after each presentation with books sold by Bank Street.
The Young Readers Stage at MetroTech Commons will feature a wide range of incredible talent: Geisel Winner Laurel Snyder (Charlie and Mouse) New York Times best-selling author Mac Barnett (Mac B., Kid Spy: Mac Undercover), Shelley Johannes (Beatrice Zinker, Upside Down Thinker series, Incognito) and Debbie Michiko Florence (Jasmine Toguchi series), best-selling and award-winning authors Chris Grabenstein (Sandapalooza Shake-Up), Lisa Greenwald (12 Before 13), Pablo Cartaya (Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish) best-selling illustrator LeUyen Pham (Real Friends), feminist, activist, and storyteller Jamia Wilson, Kate Schatz and Miriam Klein Stahl (best-selling duo of Rad Women A-Z and Rad Women Around the World), Vashti Harrison (creator of the best-selling debut Little Leaders), and Newbery Honor author Renée Watson (co-author of Betty Before X with Ilyasah Shabazz), debut Sayantani DasGupta (The Serpent’s Secret), New York Times best-selling authors Eliot Schrefer (The Lost Rainforest), Soman Chainani (The School for Good and Evil series) Kamilla Benko (The Unicorn Quest), debut author Brigit Young (Worth a Thousand Words), award-winning author Meg Medina (Merci Suárez Changes Gears), author Kheryn Callender (Hurricane Child), and author Veera Hiranandani (The Night Diary). Following their appearance, the Barnes & Noble Sales Booth will provide books for sale and signing.
The morning will kick off with a coffee reception for teachers, and a talk by the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and award-winning author Jacqueline Woodson. Educators interested in attending can email teachers@davida425.sg-host.com to reserve a seat.
There will also be one-of-a-kind performances in the NYU Tandon School Auditorium including the Story Pirates Greatest Hits Show with best-selling author Geoff Rodkey, and the Mexican music-vocal ensemble Grupo Cántaro performing family-friendly songs from their new musical picture book The Hummingbird Sings and Dances. The much-anticipated Illustrator Smackdown returns with artist Ruth Chan (Georgie’s Best Bad Day) presiding over the year’s most dynamic live-action drawing competition featuring illustrators Dan Santat (Drawn Together), LeUyen Pham (Elephant and Piggie Like Reading!: The Itchy Book), Scott Magoon (Misunderstood Shark), Rowboat Watkins (Big Bunny), Galia Bernstein (I Am a Cat), Katie Yamasaki (When the Cousins Came), and Mike Lowery (Mac Undercover).
“The Brooklyn Book Festival Children’s Day celebrates childhood reading for every age—it is a day of discovery and celebration with the opportunity to meet authors and illustrator’s face to face, a vibrant marketplace of children’s books, and kids will even find a new favorite book,” said Liz Koch, Co-Producer of the Festival. “Saturday’s activities also offer the opportunity for children to be not only readers, but creators.”
Other features include:
–ART SPOT: More fun awaits outdoors with creative authors and illustrators Ricardo Cortés (Sea Creatures from the Sky), Drew Sheneman (Don’t Eat That!), and Katie Yamasaki. Books will be sold by Stories Bookshop
–WORKSHOPS: The workshops this year are going to be hands-on and over the top with presentations at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering-4th Floor, and include: Drag Queen Storytime with Lola Lemon, followed by a drag workshop led by Mor Erich of Sez Me, creator of The Dragtivity Book and writing your own empowerment anthem with Mahogany Browne (Black Girl Magic). Books will be sold by Stories Bookshop.
There will be a full range of Young Adult programming on Sunday, September 16, with an array of best-selling, award-winning and acclaimed authors including: Maureen Johnson (Truly Devious), Lygia Day Peñaflor (All of This Is True), Lamar Giles (Spin), David Levithan (Someday), Mackenzi Lee (The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue), Malinda Lo (A Line in the Dark), Benjamin Alire Sáenz (The Inexplicable Logic of my Life), Nisha Sharma (My So-Called Bollywood Life), Arvin Ahmadi (Down and Across), Emily X.R. Pan (The Astonishing Color of After), Ashley Woodfolk (The Beauty That Remains), Adele Griffin (Tell Me No Lies), Melissa Albert (The Hazel Wood) and Dhonielle Clayton (The Belles), and K. Arsenault Rivera (The Phoenix Empress), Tochi Onyebuchi (Beasts of Night), Justina Ireland (Dread Nation), Mark Oshiro (Anger Is a Gift), Sara Farizan (Here to Stay), Brendan Kiely (Tradition), Hope Larson (All Summer Long), Jen Wang (The Prince and the Dressmaker), and Tim Fielder (Matty’s Rocket), among others.
Click here to read The BKBF Interview with Nisha Sharma.
The Brooklyn Book Festival is the largest free literary event in New York City, presenting an array of national and international literary stars and emerging authors. The Festival includes a week of Bookend Events (9/10-9/17) taking place throughout New York City, a lively Children’s Day (Saturday 9/15) and a celebratory Festival Day (Sunday 9/16) with more than 300 authors and 200 booksellers.
About the Brooklyn Book Festival
BKBF is presented by the non-profit Brooklyn Book Festival, Inc. and the Brooklyn Book Festival Literary Council. The Festival is made possible with the generous support of the Amazon Literary Partnership, Author’s Guild, Brooklyn Borough President’s Office/NYC & Company Foundation, City Council Members Brad Lander, Stephen Levin and Carlos Menchaca, Con Edison, Cultural Services of the French Embassy, Polish Cultural Institute, Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, Kirby Family Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, NYC Department of Parks & Recreation, New York State Council on the Arts, The Québec Government Office in New York, St. Francis College, and NYU Tandon School of Engineering. The festival’s media sponsors are abc7NY, C-SPAN, Book TV and WNYC.
Cultural and programming partners include BAM, Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn Law School, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Fiction, The Nation, National Book Foundation, New York Review of Books, NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Poetry Society of America, St. Francis College, The Times Literary Supplement, Whiting Foundation, and Windham Campbell Prizes.
Be sure to visit www.brooklynbookfestival.org or check out the official Facebook page, follow the Festival on Instagram (@bkbookfest), on Twitter (@BKBF) and past Festival photos on Flickr.
