(Click on event name for more information)

Exhibition of Prize-Winning Works of 16th Noma Concours (2008) “Palette of Dream Colours IV”~ ongoing until Jul 5, Tokyo, Japan

The Nye Memorial Children’s Literature Tour of the Ukraine~ ongoing until Jul 10, Ukraine

READ!Singapore 2009 – Dreaming A Good Read~ ongoing until Aug 31, Singapore

Enchanted Worlds – Art of Fairy Stories & Mermaid Tales exhibition~ ongoing until Sep 5, Lancashire, United Kingdom

Picture Perfect: Art from Caldecott Award Books, 2006-2009~ ongoing until Nov 8, 2010, Chicago, IL, USA

Exhibition – Drawings from the Heart: Tomie de Paola Turns 75 ~ Jul 3 – Nov 1, Amherst, MA, USA

Kids and Young Adult Literature Festival~ Jul 4 – 5, Rozelle, Australia

West Cork Literary Festival~ Jul 5 – 11, Bantry, Ireland

NAIDOC Week~ Jul 5 – 12, Australia

Asterisks and Obelisks: Classical Receptions in Children’s Literature~ Jul 6 – 10, Lampeter, United Kingdom

Worlds in Dialogue Conference~ Jul 8 – 11, Potchefstroom, South Africa

Storytellers of Canada Annual Conference~ Jul 8 – 12, Victoria, BC, Canada

SCBWI British Isles Hosts an Evening with Tamarind Books Founder Verna Wilkins~ Jul 9, London, United Kingdom

Tokyo International Book Fair~ Jul 9 – 12, Tokyo, Japan

American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference~ Jul 9 – 15, Chicago, IL, USA

Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) Program and Meeting Schedule at the ALA Annual Conference~ Jul 9 – 15, Chicago, IL, USA

Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) Program and Meeting Schedule at the ALA Annual Conference~ July 9 – 15, Chicago, IL, USA

National Conference for Teachers of English and Literacy~ Jul 9 – 12, Hobart, Australia

SHCY Biennial Conference: Children and Youth at Risk and Taking Risks: Historical Inquiries in International Perspective~ Jul 10-12, Berkeley, CA, USA

The 45th UKLA International Conference Making Connections: Building Literate Communities in and Beyond Classrooms~ Jul 10 – 12, London, United Kingdom

USBBY/YALSA Present Mixing it Up: The Process of Bringing International Children’s Books to the US~ Jul 11, Chicago, IL, USA

Creative Exchange: The Bologna Experience with Ayano Imai, Kiyo Tanaka and Shimako Okamura~ Jul 11, Tokyo, Japan

2009 Bologna Illustrators Exhibition of Children’s Books~ Jul 11 – Aug 16, Tokyo, Japan

Children’s Books Ireland Wild About Books Day~ Jul 12, Dublin, Ireland

10th Annual Pacific Northwest Children’s Book Conference~ Jul 13 – 17, Portland, OR, USA

20th Annual Children’s Book Fair~ Jul 13 – Aug 1, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Voices on the Coast, A Youth Literature Festival~ Jul 14 – 18, Sunshine Coast, Australia

2nd National Conference on Children’s Literature~ Jul 16 – 17, Diliman, Philippines

Harlem Book Fair~ Jul 17 – 19, Harlem, NY, USA

18th Storytelling Festival at the Edge~ Jul 17 – 19, Stokes Barn, United Kingdom

Kathalaya’s Intensive Course on Art of Storytelling~ Jul 20 – 25, Bangalore, India

16th European Conference on Reading and 1st Ibero-American Forum on Literacies: Discovering Worlds of Literacy~ Jul 19 – 22, Braga, Portugal

Racial Harmony Day~ Jul 21, Singapore

National Children’s Book Day~ Jul 21, Philippines

20th Annual Hong Kong Book Fair~ Jul 22 – 28, Hong Kong

Lima International Book Fair~ Jul 23 – Aug 5, Lima, Peru

Montana Poetry Day~ Jul 24, New Zealand

Latin American Regional Conference/Congreso Latinoamericano~ Jul 30 – Aug 1, Lima, Peru

There’s often a ritual involved in getting families into the holiday spirit: tree trimming and baking treats for some; candle lighting and telling family stories by the fireplace for others… A family I know, for instance, gathers around the tree on Christmas to hear the Christmas Eve chapter of Wind in the Willows, “Dulce Domum.”

For many families storytelling plays an important role in adding extra meaning and warmth to the holidays, whether they read books together; have a tradition of book giving; or listen to the stories of older relatives and how they celebrated the holidays as a child, way back when. In addition to helping kids understand the real meaning of the holidays, stories from books and/or from family members and friends provide a way for children to learn that different people celebrate different holidays, and that one same holiday can be celebrated differently in different families and cultures (did you know that Ecuadorians’ tradition of welcoming the new year involves making a scarecrow?…I, for one, didn’t, until recently.)

A meaningful glimpse of Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa traditions can be gleaned from the following children’s books: in The Legend of the Ponsettia, Tomie de Paola retells the Mexican legend of how the ponsettia flower came to be, through the story of a little girl who fears she won’t have a gift for baby Jesus in time for the Christmas parade; in Angela Shelf Medearis’ Seven Spools of Thread seven brothers highlight the seven principles of Kwanzaa in the process of making gold out of spools of thread; in Linda Glaser’s The Borrowed Hanukkah Latkes, a young girl devises a clever way to make her old, lonely neighbor join in her family’s Hanukkah’s celebrations, in spite of his numerous refusals. And for those of us enjoying cold, dark nights under the covers, Anna Grossnickle Hines’ Winter Lights: A Season in Poems and Quilts helps us warm up by bringing the brightness and meaning of Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa’s lights to life.

About.com offers good tips on how to wade our way through all the 2007 holiday titles on display in libraries and bookstores everywhere. The Brown Bookshelf has a great list called “Booked for The Holidays.” And for a snapshot of a few children’s book authors and illustrators’ memories of holidays past, follow me… And let the merriment begin!