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Library Card Sign-up Month~ USA

National Poetry Week~ ongoing until Sep 7, Australia

Singapore International Storytelling Festival~ ongoing until Sep 9, Singapore

Children Should Be Seen: The Image of the Child in American Picture-Book Art~ ongoing until Sep 14, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Beijing International Book Fair~ Sep 1 – 4, Tinjian, China

National Literacy and Numeracy Week~ Sep 1 – 7, Australia

New Zealand Book Month~ Sep 1 – 30, New Zealand

Christchurch Writers Festival: Getting Between the Covers~ Sep 4 – 7, Christchurch, New Zealand

Shanghai Conference On Children’s Publishing~ Sep 5 – 6, Shanghai, China

Cape Clear Island Storytellling Festival~ Sep 5 – 7, Cape Clear, Ireland

31st IBBY World Congress~ Sep 7 – 10, Copenhagen, Denmark

Hans Christian Anderson Awards Presentation~ Sep 7, Copenhagen, Denmark

International Literacy Day~ Sep 8

UNESCO Literary Prize Awards Presentation~ Sep 8, Paris, France

29th Manila International Book Fair: Words Without Borders~ Sep 12 – 16, Manila, Philippines

Bath Festival of Children’s Literature~ Sep 19 – 28, Bath, United Kingdom

Brisbane Writers Festival~ Sep 17 – 21, Brisbane, Australia

CYA later, Alligator – Children’s and Young Adult Writers And Illustrators Conference~ Sep 20, Brisbane, Australia

6th Annual Houston Latino Book and Family Festival~ Sep 20 – 21, Houston, TX, USA

International Day of Peace~ Sep 21

9th Annual Hog Wild About Reading: A Motorcycle Ride For Literacy~ Sep 21, Port Moody, BC, Canada

Raise-a-Reader Day~ Sep 24, Canada

International Children’s and Youth Literature Festival~ Sep 24 – Oct 4, Berlin, Germany

National Book Festival~ Sep 27, Washington, D.C., USA

Kidlit Bloggers Conference~ Sep 27, Portland, OR, USA

SCBWI Illustrator Day~ Sep 27, San Francisco, CA, USA

Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read~ Sep 27 – Oct 4, USA

Word on the Street Book and Magazine Festival ~ Sep 28, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Entry Deadline for the Noma Concours for Picture Book Illustrations~ Sep 30

An exciting multicultural literature event takes place this weekend in Mesilla, New Mexico – the 14th Annual Border Book Festival . Started in 1995 by a group of writers, artists and community people committed to celebrating literature and the art of storytelling in the southern United States-Northern Mexico border region, the Border Book Festival began as a one day book fair and has since turned into a major literary festival, and resulted in the foundation of The Cultural Center de Mesilla.

Here are a few words from the festival director, Denise Chavez:

“We believe that literature and the arts can bridge the many boundaries –– racial, ethnic, generational, cultural, socio-economic, and gender-based –– that divide our community. Ours is a grassroots organization that impacts its community by offering programs that are blueprints of positive communication, interaction and connection between people in our borderland region.”

In conjunction with the yearlong events held at the Cultural Center de Mesilla, the Border Book Festival now brings the best of international literature, literacy and storytelling (with a focus on Mexican and Latin American writers) to audiences in the borderland region, including cities and towns in West Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Northern Mexico.

From April 18-20 the historic Mesilla, New Mexico town plaza and surrounding sites will become the focal point of the festival, brimming with events for children and their families. The theme this year is “Return.” “A return to community, a return to family and the things that made us start the festival and the things we love about living here,” says Chavez. ” We want to bring the best of the world to where we are and take our energy out to the rest of the world. With this year’s theme we have invited extraordinary writers and artists who tell and sing the story of our world.” Participating writers and artists such as Cristina García, Quincy Troupe, Perla Batalla, Amy Costales, Xavier Garza, Alex Espinosa, Adalucía Quan and more will offer panels, workshops and readings throughout the festival and will take part in school outreach visits in the days leading up to the festival.

Special themed-tents will be set up in the plaza and offer free events for all. In the “Tent of Wonders”, for instance, children’s authors and storytellers Amy Costales, Adalucía Quan and Sudeshna Sengupta (festival poster and bookmark artist) will be telling all kinds of stories, from places far and near.

The “Lucha” tent, a bona fide wrestling ring, will feature “Lucha for Literacy,” where the audience will be able to see famous
Mexican wrestlers and listen to readings by author Xavier Garza, Griselda “La RaNa” Muñoz, recognized slam poet and Osvaldo Ogaz, a Mexican lucha poet.

“Libros y Más,” the festival trade show (one of New Mexico’s longest running book trade shows and one of very few in the larger region) will offer great selection of books and other literary goodies, but the festival organizers also thought of a little something anyone can take home for free: beautiful bookmarks with quotes from each artist. “These bookmarks will give beauty in a tangible way, and with corazón,” says Chavez. Indeed an idea (and a festival) full of heart.

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19th Annual Children’s Books Illustrated Exhibit~ ongoing until Apr 25, Hayward, CA, USA

Bologna Children’s Book Fair~ Mar 31 – Apr 3, Bologna, Italy

Awards and Artistry Exhibit: Celebrating the Children’s Book Council of Australia ‘Books of the Year’~ ongoing until June, Dromkeen Museum, Australia

Kiriyama Prize Winners Announced~ Apr 1, USA

International Children’s Book Day~ Apr 2

Seattle Rainbow Bookfest~ Apr 5, Seattle, WA, USA

The Virginia Hamilton Conference on Multicultural Literature for Youth ~ Apr 10 – 11, Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA

14th Celebration of Children’s Literature~ Apr 12, Berkeley, CA, USA

ALA National Library Week~ Apr 13 – 19, USA

14th Annual Border Book Festival~ Apr 18 – 20, Mesilla, NM, USA

Brighton Children’s Book Festival ‘Leaping From the Page’~ Apr 19 – 20, University of Brighton, UK

World Book and Copyright Day: Sponsored by UNESCO ~ Apr 23

Camara Chilena del Libro Book Fair~ Apr 23 – 30, Santiago, Chile

Buenos Aires Book Fair~ Apr 24 – May 10, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Américas Award Winners Announced~ Apr 25

13th Annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books~ Apr 26 – 27, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Winners Announced~ Apr 28, New York, NY, USA

2nd Marathon In Storytelling~ Apr 28 – 29, Quito, Ecuador

El Día de los Niños/El Día de los Libros (Children’s Day/Book Day)~Apr 30, USA

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Growing Up Asian in America Art & Essay Contest for Youth~ entry deadline Mar 6, San Francisco, CA, USA

StoryFeast 2008 – International Storytelling Festival~ Feb 1 – 3, Vancouver, BC, Canada

18th New Delhi World Book Fair~ Feb 2 – 10, New Delhi, India

National African American Read-In~ Feb 2 – 3, USA

SCBWI Annual Winter Conference~ Feb 8 – 10, New York, NY, USA

First Nations Public Library Week~ Feb 11 – 16, Canada

ALOUD: A Celebration for Young Readers~ Feb 12 – 14, Toronto, ON, Canada

Taipei International Book Exhibition~ Feb 13 – 18, Taipei, Taiwan

Cybils – Children’s and YA Bloggers’ Literary Award Winners Announced~ Feb 14

Reading the World Conference~ Feb 16 – 17, San Francisco, CA, USA

International Australia and New Zealand SCBWI Conference~ Feb 23 – 24, Sydney, Australia

Freedom to Read Week~ Feb 24 – Mar 1, Canada

Kiriyama Prize Finalists Announced~ Feb 26, San Francisco, CA, USA

New Zealand Post Book Award Winners Announced~ Feb 26, New Zealand

The National Library Board (NLB) of Singapore hosted its annual Asian Children’s Festival from Nov 17-25. Started in 2001, the Asian Children’s Festival (ACF) promotes children’s literacy by providing opportunities for the creative and joyous learning of Asian content and culture among children. The free events, held at libraries throughout Singapore and enjoyed by over 300,000 participants, featured internationally renowned children’s storytellers, writers, illustrators and puppeteers. This year 50 lucky youngsters were chosen to take part in the first-ever sleepover at the National Library – and, to heighten their experience of Asian culture, other activities such as poetry slams and a tour of the Singapore Art Museum were also planned.

Ms. Poh Poh Lim, a NLB librarian and ACF Project Manager, was pleased to share with us the details of this year’s festival. KidsAsia! was a new event which kickstarted the festival this year. It showcased “the rich culture, heritage, traditions and flavours of Asian communities” and helped children and their parents discover “what makes growing up in Asia so special.” Five KidsAsia! zones were set up at the National Library to allow children to enjoy a variety of experiences. Activities included the hands-on arts and crafts “Creativity Zone” and the “Kids Express Zone,” where music and dance were performed by children from throughout Asia. The “Going Places Zone” was enjoyed by all, as it featured a special mini-library and story corner where children and their parents were encouraged to browse and read books; an on-line reading area; and special readings hosted by members of the Asian Storytelling Network.

To reach out to as many children as possible, the ACF featured a Festival Fringe Programme, which included a variety of events held at regional and local libraries throughout the nine-day festival. Two books, put together by NLB librarians, Heritage Tales: Treasures from Singapore and The Tale Of The Missing Tail and Other Original Singapore Stories were launched at this year’s festival and shared with the children. For Ms. Lim, probably due to her librarian’s point of view, this aspect of the festival, most specifically the “Tales From Asia” programme, was its highlight.

Heritage Tales: Treasures from Singapore is an annotated bibliography which “highlights the richness and variety of Singapore’s children’s books. These titles represent our nation’s collective talents and experiences and are indeed treasures to be cherished and passed down from generation to generation.” The book, which during ACF was available for free at all Singapore libraries, includes a special section featuring works by children.

The Tale Of The Missing Tail And Other Original Singapore Stories is a compilation of original stories geared toward children ages 4-10.“This compilation includes stories in Chinese, Malay and Tamil. The 20 short stories are simple, honest tales inspired by contributors’ personal musings, experiences and culture. Some of them are rich with local characters; others are tales of bullying and other familiar issues such as sibling rivalry, childhood hobbies, achievement… Not to be missed are the tales of friendship and family love, and of monsters and endearing animals. And there’s a taste of fantasy, too! After all, what would a compilation of stories for children be without tales of princes and princesses? It’s all in there.” Copies of this book may be purchased at any Singapore library or by contacting the NLB.

In conclusion, Ms Lim says: “We have received the public’s ardent support for the past seven years. Now all we really want is to keep creating this opportunity for children to have the most fun-filled time of their lives while immersed in Asian culture and heritage.” Click on this photographer’s blog to see some photos of the event. Judging from the looks on the children’s faces, I’d say the festival goals were definitely met!

On November 3rd, the 12th annual Multicultural Children’s Book Festival was held at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, USA. Over 7,000 people attended this free event and enjoyed an afternoon filled with authors’ readings & signings (more than 400 titles were available for purchase); illustrators and celebrities’ appearances; interactive performances, and more.

The Multicultural Children’s Book Festival originally began as a collaboration between the Kennedy Center and Black Books Galore!, a children’s book service created in 1992 by three African American mothers who were frustrated by the lack of children’s books portraying African American themes. Now produced by the Kennedy Center, the festival has grown to include books and authors representing a wide array of cultures and experiences from throughout the world, including Asian and Latino in all their rich shades.

One of this year’s featured guests was award winning author Mitali Perkins, a regularly featured author and contributor to the PaperTigers website (she was the first author to participate, along with her mother, in our Community Outreach project!). We asked Mitali to share something about her experience of attending the book festival, and here is what she wrote us:

“Okay, I confess: I haven’t been doing well with the label “multicultural.”Those five syllables can make a writer feel tokenized and sidelined in the children’s book realm. But all that changed on November 3, 2007 in our nation’s capital, when I fell back in love with the word.

The taxi whisked me from Reagan Airport to the Kennedy Center. Inside the spacious, flag-lined lobby, I was greeted, taken on a tour of the Festival venue, and guided into the theater for a sound check. All the authors scheduled to sign and read were fed (stuffed, in fact) and assigned a Kennedy Fellow as an escort. My personal TLC giver accompanied me to a signing area, toting a large bottle of icy water, a good pen or two, and more snacks to sustain me. A poster featuring my face (albeit a somewhat younger version — must update my bio photo) adorned the table, along with stacks of my books waiting expectantly to be connected to readers.

It was time. A ribbon was cut with oversized shears, music began to play, and a bevy of children and parents streamed into the large room. What a relief to be here, I realized, surrounded for once by piles of books featuring non-white protagonists. But even more intriguing were the eager eyes of children taking stock of a banquet of stories about kids like them. For once, they weren’t on the margins. For once, an entire event was about telling their stories. As I watched and talked and signed and listened, I realized anew the importance of providing a “multicultural” feast of literature, and gave thanks that I’m able to contribute to the spread.

I loved meeting the talented Kennedy fellows who guided us through the day, gave my best effort as I read from Rickshaw Girl in the Center’s acoustically and aesthetically perfect theater, and in short was thoroughly spoiled by the organizers’ gracious attention. The entire event was marked by professionalism and courtesy, but best of all it helped me make peace again with an overused but still desperately needed label: confound it, people, I am a multicultural author. And proud of it, too.

Doesn’t it sound like a fabulous event?… Visit Mitali’s website and blog to find out more about her and her award winning books. To learn more about the other authors and illustrators featured at the Multicultural Children’s Festival visit the Kennedy Center website. And for a wealth of information on African American Children’s Books, check out Black Books Galore. Black Books Galore was such an immediate success when it first started that it lead to the creation of the non-profit organization Kids Cultural Books, whose goal is “to organize African American and Multicultural Children’s Book Festivals with the purpose of promoting literacy, encouraging reading, and providing communities with the rich resources of African American and other ethnic children’s literature”.

KCB’s website has information on all the festivals they host, so if there is one near you, make sure to check it out!

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Karachi International Book Fair~ Nov 30 – Dec 3, Pakistan

Carter G. Woodson Book Awards Presentation~ Dec 1, San Diego, CA, USA

Robert’s Snow: for Cancer’s Cure Final Auction~ Dec 3 – 7, USA

Australian Poetry Slam Grand Final~ Dec 7, Australia

Dromkeen Literary Luncheon and Presentation of the Dromkeen Librarian’s Award~ Dec 7, Australia

Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Booktalk and Group Critique~ Dec 10, Philippines

2007 Governor General’s Literary Awards – Public reading by all award winners~ Dec 12, Ottawa, ON, Canada

Nestle Children’s Book Prize Winners Announced~ Dec 12, England

2007 Governor General’s Literary Awards Presentation~ Dec 13, Ottawa, ON, Canada

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International Library of Children’s Literature Exhibition “Palette of Dream Colours III: Winning Works of the 15th Noma Concours for Picture Book Illustrations from Asia, Africa and Latin America”~ ongoing to Jan 13/08, Tokyo, Japan

Santiago International Book Fair~ Oct 23 – Nov 4, Santiago, Chile

National Association for Multicultural Education Conference~ Oct 31 – Nov 4, Baltimore, MD, USA

National Family Literacy Day~ Nov 1, USA

Multicultural Children’s Book Festival~ Nov 3, Washington, DC, USA

Children’s Book Week~ Nov 12-18, USA

Indonesia Book Fair~ Nov 14-18, Jakarta, Indonesia

International Children’s Literature and Young Adult Literature Celebration~ Nov 17, Milwaukee, WI, USA

Pacific Islander Education Conference~ Nov 17, Paramount, CA, USA

Children’s Book Week~ Nov 17-24, Canada

Guadalajara International Book Fair~ Nov 24 – Dec 2, Guadalajara, Mexico

Governor General’s Literary Award Winners Announced~ Nov 27, Montreal, QC, Canada

WordFest: Banff-Calgary International Writers Festival is an annual literary festival taking place Oct. 9 – 14, 2007 in Alberta, Canada. One of Canada’s premier literary festivals, WordFest 2007 features over 75 writers of local, national and international stature and will attract more than 12,000 individuals.

Children’s and young adult’s literature will be highlighted in the First Calgary Savings Book Rapport Programme. Festival Director Anne Green tells us:

“Book Rapport brings students up-close and personal with their favourite authors, which is a rare and fantastic opportunity for them. Students can hear the authors read, ask them questions, while teachers have a creative way to bring life into literature.”

Anne adds that this year’s Book Rapport Programme offers a superb line-up of KidLit writers, including the following award winning Canadian authors:

Canadian superstar Kenneth Oppel. Oppel, recipient of numerous prestigious literary awards, is the author of the million-copy-selling Silverwing Saga and has more than twenty children and young adult books to his credit. “To have Ken Oppel attend WordFest is great news for Calgary’s schools, students and families,” says Anne.

First nations writer Larry Loyie and his partner Constance Brissenden. In 2003, Loyie and Brissenden won the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children’s Non-Fiction for their children’s book, As Long as the Rivers Flow which was inspired by Loyie’s Cree childhood and the true story of his grandmother’s confrontation with a grizzly. As Long as the Rivers Flow is about a First Nations boy’s last summer spent with his family in the bush before being taken to residential school. The second book in this series When the Spirits Dance recounts the dramatic changes to the boy’s life when his father is sent overseas in World War 2.

Quebec writer Michel Noël. Noël has over fifty books to his credit and has written several award-winning books for young people, including Pien, which won the 1997 Governor General’s Award for French language children’s literature. His novel Good for Nothing, winner of the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People, takes place in northern Quebec in 1959 and is the story of young Métis who seeks to establish his own identity and find out more about the mystery surrounding his father’s death. The book provides compelling insights into many issues faced by First Nations people during this time (residential schools, racism, land claims etc.) as well as the ongoing struggles of native communities today. Noël was named Citizen of the World by the Canadian Association for the United Nations for his work in seeking better understanding among people.

For those of us who can’t attend WordFest in person, we can still take part! Pop culture writer Hal Niedzviecki will be writing the first official WordFest blog. Niedzviecki describes it as “a gossipy insider look at what’s going on and where to be, what’s not to be missed, who is who, and the opportunity to have your questions answered.”

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Banned Books Week~ Sept 29-Oct 6, USA

Canadian Library Month~ Oct 1-31, Canada

Frankfurt Book Fair~ Oct 10-14, Frankfurt, Germany

Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards Ceremony~ Oct 12, Boston, MA, USA

Teen Read Week~ Oct 14-20, USA

Canadian Children’s Book Centre Awards~ Oct 15, Toronto, ON, Canada

Library Week~ Oct 15-21, New Zealand

Tomas Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award~ Oct 17, Texas, USA

International Festival of Authors~ Oct 17-27, Toronto, ON, Canada

Tauranga Arts Festival~ Oct 18-28, Tauranga, New Zealand

Reading Association of the Philippines Conference~ Oct 19-20, Bacolod City, Philippines

Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards Ceremony~ Oct 19, New York City, NY, USA