Authors Abound at ABC Children’s Institute

Among the highlights of the American Booksellers Association’s ABC Children’s Institute on Wednesday, June 6, are two events offering booksellers the opportunity to meet and discuss new projects with established and upcoming authors: the Speed Dating Lunch With Children’s Authors and the ABA/CBC Tea With Children’s Authors and Illustrators.

Tickets to these events are included in registration for the Children’s Institute, which is open exclusively to booksellers at ABA member stores.

At the 90-minute Speed Dating Lunch, frontline booksellers will meet authors who will provide a very personal perspective on their new works. The authors will make their way from table to table during lunch.

Participating authors and their most recent books are:

• Jeffrey Bennett, Max Goes to the Moon (Big Kid Science)
• Tonya Bolden, Emancipation Proclamation (Abrams)
• Shirin Yim Bridges, Horrible Hauntings: An Augmented Reality Collection of Ghosts and Ghouls (Goosebottom Books)
• Gina Damico, Croak (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Barbara deRubertis, Animal Antics: A to Z (Kane Press)
• Patricia Reilly Giff, Hunter Moran Saves the World (Holiday House)
• Tim Green, Unstoppable (HarperCollins)
• Oliver Jeffers, This Moose Belongs to Me (HarperCollins Children’s Books)
• J.J. Johnson, Random (Peachtree)
• Dan Krokos, False Memory (Hyperion)
• Wes Moore, Discovering Wes Moore (Random House)
• Mike Mullin, Ashfall (Tanglewood Press)
• Scott Nash, The High-Skies Adventure of Blue Jay the Pirate (Candlewick)
• Carmen Rodrigues, 34 Pieces of You (Simon & Shuster)
• Marilyn Singer, The Superheroes Employment Agency, Tallulah’s Tutu, and The Boy Who Cried Alien (Early Light Books)
• Obert Skye, Potterwookiee: Book Two (Macmillan Children’s)
• Raina Telgemeier, Drama (Scholastic)
• Tyler Whitesides, Janitors, Book 2: Secrets of New Forest Academy (Deseret Book)

At the 60-minute Author and Illustrator Tea, co-sponsored by the Children’s Book Council, booksellers will join their peers at a table with an established author or personality of their choice for a discussion of the author or illustrator’s newest work. 

When registering, booksellers are asked to select their top three author choices, in order of preference. Participating authors are:

• Mac Barnett, Chloe and the Lion and Oh No! Not Again! (Disney-Hyperion)
• Michael Buckley, The Sisters Grimm: Book Nine: The Council of Mirrors (Amulet Books)
• Kristin Cashore, Bitterblue, (Penguin Young Readers Group)
• Sharon Creech, The Great Unexpected (HarperCollins)
• Shannon Hale, Princess Academy 2 (Bloomsbury)
• Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian, Burn for Burn (Simon & Schuster)
• Jon Klassen, This is Not My Hat (Candlewick)
• Patricia MacLachlan, The Boxcar Children Beginning: The Aldens of Fair Meadow Farm (Albert Whitman)
• Sonia Manzano (aka Maria from Sesame Street), The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano (Scholastic)
• Patrick McDonnell, The Monsters’ Monster (Little, Brown)
• Kadir Nelson, I Have a Dream (Random House)
• Chris Raschka, Otter and Odder: A Love Story (Candlewick)
• Jerry Spinelli, Third Grade Angels (Scholastic)
• Erin Stead and Phil Stead, Bear Has a Story to Tell (Macmillan Children’s)
• Rebecca Stead, Liar & Spy (Random House)

Registration for the Children’s Institute also includes:

• A table seat at the BEA Children’s Breakfast
• A ticket to the Annual Children’s Art Auction and Reception, presented by the ABC Group at ABA and the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression; and,
• Priority seating at ABA’s Wednesday education sessions

Children’s Institute registration is limited to 150 participants on a first-come, first-served basis. The deadline to register is May 1. Register now.

Questions about ABA’s children’s programming should be addressed to ABC Group Manager Shannon O’Connor.