BEA Librarian Favorites: Speed Dating with Children's Authors

Last week I was at the Connecticut Library Association Conference, and I had many conversations about BEA! Folks are busy planning their agendas using the My BEA Show Planner, which also has a mobile app for last minute changes.

I will be posting daily highlights about events that come highly recommended from librarians. If you have a favorite program for me to write about (or would like to write about it!) please email me: jhughes@ctlibrarians.org

Now, a highlight from Heather Baker, Head of Children's Services, Canton Public Library, endorsing the Speed Dating with Children's Authors Event. It was covered by NPR last year and more information can be found on the American Booksellers Association website.

"If you are attending [BEA] on Tuesday, this is my absolute favorite event...I know, you may have heard me gush about it before.

You leave with a pile of advanced copies and books, often signed by the authors, and you've MET all the authors before you leave! Truly a wonderful and incredibly memorable way to spend an hour and a half of your life."

Speed Dating With Children's Authors

Presented by the ABC Children's Group at ABA and the Children's Book Council.

10:30 am - 12:00 pm Rooms 1E09 and 1E10

Open to Booksellers, Librarians & Other Children's Book Professionals

Must reserve your spot in advance by emailing 2011speeddate@cbcbooks.org with your full name, store, library, or company affiliation, store address (street, city, state, and zip), and email address.

Get to know 19 children's book creators up close and personal! Authors and illustrators will move from table to table, stopping for quick get-to-know-you chats. This is a fun and easy way to get up to "speed" on some of the latest and greatest projects of the season.

Scheduled to appear:

· David A. Adler, Mystery Math: A First Book of Algebra (Holiday House)

· Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Trial By Fire / Every Other Day (Egmont)

· Jane Hampton Cook, What Does the President Look Like? (Kane Miller)

· James Dashner, The Death Cure (Random House)

· Laura Lee Gulledge, Page By Paige (Abrams)

· Jeff Hirsch, The Eleventh Plague (Scholastic)

· Carrie Jones, After Obsession (Bloomsbury)

· Alan Katz, Mosquitoes Are Ruining My Summer; Me Me Mine; Poems I Wrote When No One Was Looking (Simon & Schuster)

· Jon Klassen, I Want My Hat Back (Candlewick)

· Tahereh Mafi, Shatter Me (HarperCollins)

· Kate McMullan, Myth-o-Mania series (Capstone)

· Jennifer Roy, MindBlind (Marshall Cavendish)

· Marie Rutkoski, The Jewel of the Kalderash (Macmillan)

· Clete Smith, Aliens on Vacation (Disney)

· Ashley Spires, Binky Under Pressure (Kids Can)

· Susan Stockdale, Bring on the Birds (Peachtree)

· Laini Taylor, Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Little, Brown)

· Linda Urban, Hound Dog True (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

· Meg Wolitzer, The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman (Penguin)

Did you learn about a new book last year or make a new connection with a children's author at the speed dating event? Tell me your story!

Best,

Jill