Click on event name for more information

Freedom to Read Week~ ongoing until Mar 2, Canada

Children’s Literature and Social Justice~ ongoing until Mar 19, Portland, OR, USA

Tall Tales & Huge Hearts: Raúl Colón~ ongoing until Mar 29, Abilene, TX,USA

AFCC’s Book Illustrators Gallery~ submissions accepted until Mar 31, Singapore

Sun Gallery’s Twenty-third Annual Children’s Book Illustrator Exhibit~ ongoing until Apr 6, Hayward, CA, USA

Skipping Stones Youth Honor Awards Celebrating Multicultural Awareness, International Understanding and Nature Appreciation~ submissions accepted until June 25, USA

Carle Museum Exhibition: The Caldecott Medal: 75 Years of Distinguished Illustration~ ongoing until June 30, Amherst, MA, USA

Maurice Sendak Symposium at The University of British Columbia~ Mar 1, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Read Across America Day ~ Mar 1, USA

Charlotte S. Huck Children’s Literature Festival~ Mar 1 – 2, Redlands, CA, USA

Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices Day and Presentation of the Charlotte Zolotow Award~ Mar 2, Madison, WI, USA

Children’s Books Week~ Mar 2 – 7, Belgium

Shanghai International Literary Festival~ Mar 2 – 18, Shanghai, China

Share a Story – Shape a Future, A Blog Tour for Literacy~ Mar 4 – 8

Emirates Airline Festival of Literature (Children’s Program)~ Mar 5 – 9, Dubai

World Read Aloud Day: Take Action for Global Literacy, Celebrate the Power of Words, Change the World~ Mar 6

World Book Day~ Mar 7

TARA (The Arabian Reading Association) Annual Conference ~ Mar 7 – 9, Manama, Bahrain

44th Annual Georgia Children’s Book Awards and Conference on Children’s Literature~ Mar 8 – 9, Athens, GA, USA

YALSA’s Teen Tech Week~ Mar 10 – 16, USA

Children’s Literature Conference~ Mar 15, DeKalb, IL, USA

45th Annual  Children’s Literature Festival~ Mar 17 – 19, Warrensburg, MO, USA

World Storytelling Day~ Mar 20

UNESCO International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination~ Mar 21

UNESCO World Poetry Day (UNESCO)~ Mar 21

Harmony Day: Many Stories – One Australia~ Mar 21, Australia

Chapter & Verse’s Monthly Meeting (A Book Club for Adults Discussing Children’s Lit)~ Mar 21, USA

Paris Book Fair~ Mar 22 – 25, Porte de Versailles, France 

Children’s Book Festival~ Mar 24, Melbourne, Australia

Bologna Children’s Book Fair, Guest of Honour: Sweden~ Mar 25 – 28, Bologna,Italy

Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award Winners Announced~ Mar 26, Vimmerby, Sweden

41st National Book Fair and 11th Bangkok international Book Fair~ Mar 29 – Apr 8, Bangkok, Thailand

The Literature Centre (formerly Fremantle Children’s Literature Centre) Exhibits and Programs~ Fremantle, Australia

Dromkeen National Centre for Picture Book Art Exhibits~ Riddells Creek, Australia

Books Illustrated Events and Exhibitions~ Middle Park, Australia

International Youth Library Exhibits~ Munich, Germany

Tulika Book Events~ India

International Library of Children’s Literature Events~ Tokyo, Japan

Newcastle University Programme of Talks on Children’s Books for 2011-2012~ Newcastle, United Kingdom

Seven Stories (the National Home of Children’s Books in Britain) Events~ Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Discover Children’s Story Centre~ London, United Kingdom

Arne Nixon Center’s Children’s Literature Book Clubs for Adults Events~ USA

Events Sponsored by The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress~ USA

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art~ Amherst, MA, USA

The National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature Exhibits~ Abilene, TX, USA

Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Events

Have you already started? Or is your pile of books ready to go?  Who are you going to read to?  Who is going to read to you?  If you haven’t registered yet, head over to LitWorld right away…

We’ll be reading to each other in the car and at home, and imagining a world where everyone can read…

Press Release from LitWorld.org:

World Read Aloud Day: March 7, 2012
Take Action for Global Literacy, Celebrate the Power of Words, Change the World

Worldwide at least 793 million people remain illiterate.

Imagine a world where everyone can read…

World Read Aloud Day is about taking action to show the world that the right to read and write belongs to all people. World Read Aloud Day motivates children, teens, and adults worldwide to celebrate the power of words, especially those words that are shared from one person to another, and creates a community of readers advocating for every child’s right to a safe education and access to books and technology.

By raising our voices together on this day we show the world’s children that we support their future: that they have the right to read, to write, and to share their words to change the world.

It’s time to join the Global Literacy Movement.
Accomplished so far:
• Reached 35 countries and 40,000 participants on March 3, 2010
• Reached 60 countries and all 50 states and 200,000 participants on March 9, 2011
• Preparing for March 7, 2012: Let’s make it a million participants or more!

Register for World Read Aloud Day 2012 here and read the World Read Aloud Blog here. World Read Aloud Day’s activity page with free downloads and a picture book is here and info about spreading the word via social media with sample tweets etc. is here.

As you get ready to celebrate World Read Aloud Day 2012 check out the latest LitWorld video “What Would the World be Like if Everyone Could Read?”

I’m posting my week-end book review a day early to clock in with Poetry Friday as a couple of days ago I received a review copy of Kate Coombs and Meilo So‘s new book Water Sings Blue, which Kate gave us a glimpse of back in January when her first copies arrived (and if you don’t know Kate’s blog, Book Aunt, it’s well worth a read).  It arrived just in time to squeeze it into our Water in Multicultural Children’s Books theme…

Poetry Friday this week is hosted by Dori at Dori Reads…

Kate Coombs, illustrated by Meilo So,
Water Sings Blue: Ocean Poems
Chronicle Books, 2012.

Ages 4-11

The finely tuned observation in both the poetry and illustrations of Water Sings Blue draws young readers into that world of the shoreline where time just seems to disappear and exploration offers up endless possibilities for discovery.  Kate Coombs’ poems are satisfyingly memorable, with their cohesive patterns of meter and rhyme that, nevertheless, contain plenty of surprises – like, for example, the alliteration and internal rhyming at the end of “Sand’s Story”, in which mighty rocks have turned to sand:

Now we grind and we grumble,
humbled and grave,
at the touch of our breaker
and maker, the wave.

… Not to mention the witty pun on “breaker”: and the gentle wit of Coomb’s verse also lights the imagination throughout this collection.

Turning the pages, readers encounter a vast array of sea characters, starting in the air with the seagull; then listening to “What the Waves Say” before diving down to meet the creatures of the deep: like the shy octopus author (think ink…), or the beautiful but self-absorbed fish whose tail and fins act as brushes, and who concludes his/her soliloquy with the wonderfully evocative: “I’m a water artist. / You wouldn’t understand.”  As well as creatures like sharks and jellyfish, there are poems about fascinating, less well-known fish – “Oarfish”, “Gulper Eel” and “Nudibranch”: they could become a follow-up project by themselves!  There’s also a deep-sea shipwreck, and back on the sea shore, a gnarled “Old Driftwood” telling stories “to all the attentive / astonished twigs”, and a property agent hermit crab with a salesman’s patter.

Bringing all the poems together in a visual feast are Meilo So’s gorgeous watercolors.  As well as her depiction of jewel-colored corals and waves in every shade of blue imaginable, her illustrations are clearly also influenced by direct observation of the shoreline around her Shetland Isle home, from fishermen’s cottages to diving gannets.

Just like in real beachcombing, young readers will lose track of time as they pore over So’s seashores for what they can find.

Water Sings Blue would be the perfect picture book to bring on a trip to the beach, wherever in the world that happened to be; and if young readers can’t wait for that, it will take them there immediately in their imaginations.

And just a reminder that the count-down to World Read Aloud Day on 7th March has more than begun.  LitWorld are aiming for 1,000,000 participants this year, so do register with them and tell all your friends about it too.  It’s a win-win-win situation – somebody gets to read, somebody gets to enjoy being read to, and everyone raises their voices together to support global literacy goals of every child’s right to education…  And if you’re spreading the word on Twitter, the hashtag is #readaloud – use it to link in to the ever-widening community of WRAD supporters, and connect with LitWorld at @litworldsays.

Click on event name for more information

Freedom to Read Week~ ongoing until Mar 3, Canada

Pratham Book Events at World Book Fair~ ongoing until Mar 4, New Delhi, India

Growing up Asian in America Contest~ submissions accepted until Mar 12, San Francisco, CA, USA

MA Children’s Book Illustration Exhibit~ ongoing until Mar 15, Cambridge, United Kingdom

New Zealand International Arts and Writers Festival~ ongoing until Mar 18, Wellington, New Zealand

Sun Gallery’s Twenty-third Annual Children’s Book Illustrator Exhibit~ ongoing until Apr 7, Hayward, CA, USA

Ilustarte: 5th International Biennial Exhibition of Children’s Books Illustration ~ ongoing until Apr 8, Lisbon, Portugal

The Writer’s Union of Canada’s Annual Writing for Children Competition~ submissions accepted until Apr 24, Canada

Picture This: 90 Years of Storybook Art~ ongoing until May 6, Wenham, MA, USA

Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Children’s Book Award 2013~ submissions accepted until Dec 31, 2012, United Kingdom

 

 

World Book Day~ Mar 1, United Kingdom and Ireland

Read Across America Day ~ Mar 2, USA

6th Annual Charlotte S. Huck Children’s Literature Festival~ Mar 2 -3, Redlands, CA, USA

Shanghai International Literary Festival~ Mar 2 – 18, Shanghai, China

Draw Me a Story: A Celebration of Contemporary New England Children’s Book Illustrators~ Mar 2 – 18, Wenham, MA, USA

Words Go Round Literary Open House: Dedicated to Young Writers and Readers~ Mar 3, Singapore

Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices Day and Presentation of the Charlotte Zolotow Award~ Mar 3, Madison, WI, USA

YALSA’s Teen Tech Week~ Mar 4 – 10, USA

Share a Story – Shape a Future, A Blog Tour for Literacy: The Culture of Reading~ Mar 5 – 9

A Picture Book Celebration for Writers and Writer/Illustrators~ Mar 6, Toronto, ON, Canada

Rhinelander Children’s Book Fest~ Mar 6 – 7, Rhinelander, WI, USA

Emirates Airline Festival of Literature~ Mar 6 – 10, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

World Read Aloud Day: Take Action for Global Literacy, Celebrate the Power of Words, Change the World~ Mar 7

37th Annual CABE Conference: A Legacy of Promoting Equity and Access through Multilingualism and Multiculturalism: Mar 7 – 10, Sacramento, CA, USA

Tomo Anthology Launch: Evening of Readings, Discussion and Reflection~ Mar 10, Tokyo, Japan

Children’s Books Week~ Mar 10 – 17, Belgium

The Poetry Society’s Foyle Young Poets 2011 Competition Launch~ Mar 12, United Kingdom

School Library Journal’s Battle of the Kids’ Books~ Mar 13 – Apr 2, USA

Somerset Celebration of Literature~ Mar 14 – 16, Mudgeeraba, Australia

Chapter & Verse’s (A Book Club for Adults Discussing Children’s Lit) Meeting~ Mar 15, USA

Leipzig Book Fair~ Mar 15 – 18, Leipzig, Germany

Children’s Literature Conference: The Right Book for the Right Reader~ Mar 16, DeKalb, IL, USA

Celebration of Teaching and Learning~ Mar 16 – 17, New York, NY, USA

Salon du livre de Paris, Guest of Honour: Japan and Moscow~ Mar 16 – 19, Porte de Versailles, France

44th Annual  Children’s Literature Festival~ Mar 18 – 20, Warrensburg, MO, USA

Bologna Children’s Book Fair, Guest of Honour: Australia~ Mar 19 – 22, Bologna,Italy

World Storytelling Day~ Mar 20

Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award Winners Announced~ Mar 20, Vimmerby, Sweden

International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination~ Mar 21

World Poetry Day (UNESCO)~ Mar 21

Harmony Day~ Mar 21, Australia

Children’s Book Festival~ Mar 22 – 25, Melbourne, Australia

43rd Annual Georgia Children’s Book Awards and Conference on Children’s Literature~ Mar 23 – 24, Athens, GA, USA

The Norman Lindsay Festival of Children’s Literature~ Mar 25, Faulconbridge, Australia

National Latino Children’s Literature Conference: Connecting Cultures and Celebrating Cuentos~ Mar 29 – 30, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA

Bangkok International Book Fair~ Mar 29 – Apr 8, Bangkok, Thailand

Storylines’ Margaret Mahy Day~ Mar 31, Auckland, New Zealand

 

 

Fremantle Children’s Literature Centre Exhibits and Programs~ Fremantle, Australia

Dromkeen National Centre for Picture Book Art Exhibits~ Riddells Creek, Australia

Books Illustrated Events and Exhibitions~ Middle Park, Australia

International Library of Children’s Literature Events~ Tokyo, Japan

International Youth Library Exhibits~ Munich, Germany

Newcastle University Programme of Talks on Children’s Books for 2011-2012~ Newcastle, United Kingdom

Seven Stories (the National Home of Children’s Books in Britain) Events~ Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Discover Children’s Story Centre~ London, United Kingdom

Events Sponsored by The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress~ USA

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art~ Amherst, MA, USA

The National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature Exhibits~ Abilene, TX, USA

Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Events

Have you been totting up the minutes you’ve been reading aloud, in preparation for World ReadAloud day? You can add your times to the count over at LitWorld now - as well as tell them about any special events you’ve taken part in today. Were/are you at Times Square in New York for the 24-hour Readathon? And if you read the NY Daily News, look out tomorrow (Thursday 10th) for a”joyful piece” by LitWorld’s Poet Laureate Kwame Alexander…

For some background, read the post I wrote a couple of weeks ago. Lots of people multiplied by lots of minutes should make for a big total. Will we reach the 774 million target? It’s almost time to find out…

What would your life be like if you couldn’t read or write? What signposts in the journey of your life would you have missed? Apart from the necessity of reading and writing, it’s hard to imagine what quality of life would be missed by not having books to read, whether for work or for pleasure.

So it is shocking to think that there are 774 million people in the world today who cannot read or write, and many of them are children.

Wednesday 9th March is our chance to come together in support of the World Literacy movement for World Read Aloud Day. Litworld.org is rallying the world to take part in its mammoth read-aloud-athon, aiming for 774 million minutes of children, or indeed adults, being read to. If you haven’t already done so, now is the time to start tallying how many minutes you are spending reading aloud and to how many people – whether at home, in school or at your local library – or on a bus or a train, or in the park – in fact, anywhere! Multiply the number of minutes by the number of people listening – then on March 9th you will be able to log your total on LitWorld’s website – and we will also post the direct link on the day.

For confirmation of the power of reading aloud, watch the video on LitWorld’s homepage - then go get a book and start reading to anyone and everyone you can. You can register here or sign up on Facebook. Follow events on LitWorld’s WRAD blog here or on Twitter, and join in via the Twitter hashtags #litworld and/or #literacy. Take a look at our Books at Bedtime and other reading aloud posts past and future for some great readaloud ideas – and we’d love to hear what you’re reading too, so do drop by and let us know! Now get reading – every minute really does count!