4th Festival of Children's Books Authors & Illustrators at Barrington Books

Barrington Books presents today, Oct. 20, its 4th Annual Fall Festival of Children’s Books Authors & Illustrators from 12-3pm. 

The festival will include an all-star lineup of award-winning children’s book authors, including Newbery Honor-winner Grace Lin (WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON; STARRY RIVER OF THE SKY) Mary Jane Begin (THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE; WILLOW BUDS), Peter Mandel (JACKHAMMER SAM; ZOO AH-CHOOOO) Eileen Rosenthal (I MUST HAVE BOBO! I’LL SAVE YOU BOBO!), Patty Bowman (THE AMAZING HAMWEENIE) and co-authors Carol Liu and Marybeth Caldarone (ARLENE ON THE SCENE; TRUE FRIENDS).

This year, the store is introducing an all-new format for the annual event, which includes readings from each of the participating authors starting at 12 pm, followed by a live Q&A with the audience, and a group book signing.

“We want to give young readers and their families the opportunity to really connect with the authors,” said Jennifer Massotti, store manager. “It’s a truly special experience for fans to meet and ask questions of award-winning authors they admire, so we’ve structured this to be a lively, interactive and exciting event!”

The participating authors—who will be coming from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York and Washington D.C. to join the event— are similarly enthusiastic about the new format.

“It’s always great fun to be among group of your peers sharing work,” said Mary Jane Begin, local author-illustrator and Barrington resident. “I’m very much looking forward to chatting with the other panelists and to connecting with young readers. It’s what this day is all about.”

MEET THE AUTHORS:

Grace Lin is the author and illustrator of picture books, early readers and middle grade novels. Grace's 2010 Newbery Honor book WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON was chosen for Al Roker's Today Show Kid's Book Club and was a NY Times Bestseller. LING & TING, Grace's first early reader, was honored with the Theodor Geisel Honor in 2011. An Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award nominee for the US, most of Grace's books are about the Asian-American experience because she believes, "Books erase bias, they make the uncommon everyday, and the mundane exotic. A book makes all cultures universal." Her latest novel, STARRY RIVER OF THE SKY, a companion book to WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON releases on October 2nd, 2012.  See more about Grace and her work at www.gracelin.com.

Mary Jane Begin is award-winning Illustrator and author known in particular for her acclaimed picture books, LITTLE MOUSE’S PAINTING, BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP, A MOUSE TOLD HIS MOTHER, a retelling of THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE and WILLOW BUDS, tales inspired by Kenneth Graham’s THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS.  Her latest offering, MY LITTLE PONY: UNDER THE SPARKLING SEA will be available April 2013.

In addition to writing and illustrating, Mary Jane is a professor at Rhode Island School of Design, where she has taught for twenty-one years, and also serves as the Internship & Professional Development Advisor for the Illustration Department. She is the recipient of many awards, including the Steven Donahos Award and multiple Certificates of Merit from the Society of Illustrators, multiple Awards of Excellence from Communications Arts, the Irma Simonton Black Award, and the Critici Erba Prize at the Bologna Book Fair. Her work has been exhibited throughout the country with one-woman shows at Books of Wonder

Gallery in New York and Beverly Hills and the National Museum of American Illustration in Newport. She has also exhibited at the RISD Museum, Society of Illustrators (NY), The DeCordova Museum, and Storyopolis in LA. Mary Jane lives with her husband and two children in Barrington, Rhode Island. Her work can be found at: http://www.maryjanebegin.com

Peter Mandel is an adventure travel journalist and the author of eleven books for kids including the new JACKHAMMER SAM, called "wonderful and overwhelming, rattling and mesmerizing" by Publishers Weekly. 

Also new is ZOO AH-CHOOOO, a PBS Reading Rainbow selection. "Lively pen-and-ink and watercolor cartoon illustrations join with the humorous text to tell the tale with panache," says School Library Journal. "Gusty splatters and loud, boisterous sneezes can't lose," says Kirkus Reviews. 

Published two years ago, BUN, ONION, BURGER was named a Summer 2010 Children's INDIE NEXT pick by the American Booksellers Association. Other titles include PLANES AT THE AIRPORT, BOATS ON THE RIVER, MY OCEAN LINER, SAY HEY! A SONG OF WILLIE MAYS and RED CAT WHITE CAT.

Originally from Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, Mandel lives in Providence these days with his wife, Kathy, and cats, Betty, Emily and Cecil.  Get in touch with him at: http://www.author-illustr-source.com/petermandel.html

Before writing her first book, I MUST HAVE BOBO!, Eileen Rosenthal worked as a children’s book designer for Alfred A. Knopf in New York and as a designer of museum and exhibition graphics.

She met her husband, illustrator Marc Rosenthal, in New York City while working at the same design studio. Since then, they have enjoyed many years of peaceful co-habitation and collaboration. Marc is the illustrator of I MUST HAVE BOBO! and the follow up, I’LL SAVE YOU, BOBO! They have a wonderful son, a charming cat, and live in the Berkshires. A third book: WILLY, BOBO & EARL will be out in 2013. For more about Eileen visit http://www.pippinproperties.com/authors-illustrators/eileen-rosenthal.

Patty Bowman in the author and illustrator of The Amazing Hamweenie. This is her first picture book. Her fat, lazy, and extremely ungraceful tabby cat Bandini was her primary inspiration for creating Hamweenie. She likes drawing, coffee, and winter. She currently lives near Narragansett Bay in Warren, Rhode Island. To see more of her work visit http://pattybowman.com.

Marybeth Caldarone was born in Westchester, New York, growing up with four older brothers in a boisterous Italian family. She also grew up increasingly unable to walk and move her hands and fingers. Despite her father being a prominent pediatrician and Marybeth having seen the best doctors in the area, no one could explain why she was losing mobility. By high school she was using a wheelchair full-time. She went on to college at the University of Rhode Island, and earned her master's degree in Speech/Language Pathology. It was only after her second child, daughter Grace, began to exhibit signs of similar mobility problems that Marybeth learned of her diagnosis. Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease was causing the progressive degeneration in Marybeth's peripheral nerves, and the genetic condition had been passed on to Grace. There is currently no cure.

Armed with knowledge, a newfound community of support, and a mother's relentless sense of purpose, Marybeth set out to change the landscape for her daughter. She began working with organizations to raise funds for cure-driven research. She also set out to raise awareness, believing that with awareness, comes the understanding, empathy and support that she wants for her daughter. The book series, ARLENE ON THE SCENE, is part of this mission. Through collaboration with friend Carol Liu, Marybeth intends to redefine disability as difference, and to then show young readers the value in not just tolerating, not accepting, but rather embracing the differences among us. Currently, Marybeth lives in Kingston, RI with her husband and two children and works for Chariho Public Schools as a speech and language pathologist.

Carol Liu grew up in a quiet neighborhood in Warwick, RI. She remembers as a child wanting to become a writer and has stacks of handwritten stories and poems to prove it! Somewhere she changed directions, though, and earned a degree in psychology from the University of Rhode Island, following that up with a master's in social work from Columbia University. Wanting to take her advocacy one step further, Carol added a law degree from Georgetown University and began her career at the Legal Aid Bureau in Maryland, representing children in abuse and neglect cases. She then began providing individual and group therapy at a school serving kids with emotional and behavioral challenges. Most recently, she returned to legal work, once again representing children in abuse and neglect cases, this time in Washington, DC.

When her friend Marybeth Caldarone told Carol about an idea to write a children's book series to deepen understanding of disability and difference, Carol jumped at the chance to write again, now for a deeply personal purpose. With ARLENE ON THE SCENE and the sequel, ARLENE, REBEL QUEEN, (spring 2013), Carol hopes to help raise awareness of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, which affects Marybeth and her daughter Grace, and to raise funds for research, with 100% of sale proceeds being donated to the Hereditary Neuropathy Foundation. Carol currently lives outside of Washington, DC with her husband, two children, and two (wild) dogs.

For more about the series, visit http://arleneonthescene.wordpress.com

Barrington Books, voted BEST INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE by Rhode Island Monthly, is known far and wide for its knowledgeable book-loving staff, vast selection of high-quality books, toys and gifts, as well as its vibrant community events. Conveniently located in the heart of the picturesque East Bay, visit us at184 County Road, in Barrington, or online at http://www.barringtonbooks.com