The Tucson Festival of Books is a great opportunity to meet your favorite children’s and teen authors and illustrators and to create a stack of books by authors you meet for the first time at the festival. The sessions include panels of authors talking about topics ranging from humor and graphic novels to serious societal issues. Another set of sessions are writing and illustrating workshops for children and teens. Adults and teens interested in becoming published authors can attend sessions about how to work with agents and publishers and illustrator studios where illustrators demonstrate artistic techniques. The outdoor Children’s Storytelling Stage features interactive read-alouds of new picturebooks by authors and illustrators and the Teen and Author Stage has panels of YA authors.
Featured sessions in the College of Education on Saturday start off with Mary Roach, who has created her first book for children, “Packing for Mars for Kids,” and include a panel on science fiction with Marie Lu, J. Elle, and Lilliam Rivera and a panel about DC versus Marvel Superheroes by Mariko Tamaki and Marie Lu. Readers who enjoy middle grade adventures and fantasy will find multiple panels, including a carousel of authors at 4:00 on Saturday, and featuring authors such as Margaret Peterson Haddix, Pam Muñoz Ryan, Michael Buckley, Padma Venkatraman, and Brian Young. Picturebook panels highlight themes of friendship, immigration, and wonder. One special panel features three authors, LeUyen Pham, Kelly Yang, and Lilliam Rivera, talking about their recent books on finding hope in the pandemic.
Featured sessions in the College of Education on Sunday start off with a carousel of YA authors where participants rotate from table to table to meet authors in small groups and then continue with keynotes by Marie Lu on creating dystopian worlds and a Graphix.com author/illustrator panel that celebrates graphic novels. Sunday ends with the popular illustrator draw-off moderated by Adam Rex. Other panels focus on history as possibility, remaining true to self, and fighting for justice and freedom.
Workshops on writing and illustrating for children are offered both days and range from drawing creatures to drawing comics, writing poems and stories, and painting rocks. Each is led by an author or illustrator. A special workshop on Saturday is for teens and adults on using art to create protest posters and a workshop for children on drawing comics the Lowrider way.
Book Biz sessions across the two days include topics such as finding an agent, writing for young children, getting a debut novel published, using social media, designing a picturebook, and insider’s perspectives on the publishing industry. In addition, the illustrator studio features award-winning illustrators such as Yuyi Morales, Raúl the Third, Matt Phelan, Laura Vaccaro Seeger, and Rashin Kheiriyeh doing live demonstrations of their techniques as artists in creating illustrations for their books.
The Children’s Storyteller Stage is located right outside the College of Education next to the bookstore and features well-known authors and illustrators of picturebooks in interactive read-alouds, such as Dan Santat, Raúl the Third, Adam Rex, and Shannon Hale. Illustrators will draw the story as the author reads and invite audience members to add to the story. There are several story times with Pete the Cat and Curious George.
The Teen and Author Stage is an outdoor stage on the mall and features panels of well-known YA authors in panels around crime thrillers, dark secrets, power, anxiety, and fantasy worlds. Authors on this stage include Angeline Boulley, V. E. Schwab, Anna-Marie McLemore, J. Elle, Akshaya Raman, and Margaret Peterson Haddix.
The featured presenter in the parent/educator strand is Gail Boushey, co-author of the well-known “The Daily 5” and “The CAFE Book,” sharing ideas how to help children become independent readers. Cyndi Giorgis, author of “Jim Trelease’s Read-Aloud Handbook,” gives tips for reading aloud with children. Other sessions offer an opportunity for parents and teachers to become familiar with new award-winning books through talks about these books and browsing sessions to look at the books.
Don’t miss the opportunity to interact with award-winning authors and illustrators and to get your books autographed in the signing booths after each session. The schedule of these sessions is located on the website of the Tucson Festival of Books.
Note: Professional development credit is available for educators for attending any of the sessions in the children’s and teen area at the Tucson Festival of Books. Educators can register at a table in the lobby of the College of Education, get their form stamped for each session they attend, and receive a certificate of hours as a record of their attendance. Professional development credit is not offered for sessions in other areas of the festival, just in the children’s and teen venues.
Learn more at the Tucson Festival of Books website.
