BEA Announces Children’s Breakfast Speakers

Tony Award-winner Nathan Lane, the author of a children’s book to be published this fall, will be the Master of Ceremonies at the BookExpo America Children’s Breakfast on Friday, May 29, at the Javits Convention Center. Lane will be joined on the panel by illustrator Oliver Jeffers and authors Rainbow Rowell and James Patterson, who will speak about their upcoming books and the inspiration behind their work. The announcement of this year’s Children’s Breakfast speakers was made by BEA show organizers on Thursday, February 5.

“BEA provides our audience of booksellers and industry professionals an exclusive intimate setting to meet some of the most famous authors in the world,” said BEA Event Director Steven Rosato. “Our breakfasts are the premier platforms for our publishing industry members to launch their biggest titles that typically go on to populate the bestseller lists for the year (and years!) ahead.” 

The authors and featured books at the BEA Children’s Breakfast (Friday, May 29, from 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.) are:

• Oliver Jeffers, illustrator of The Day the Crayons Came Home (Penguin Young Readers/Philomel)
• Rainbow Rowell, author of Carry On and a new special edition of Fangirl (St. Martin’s Griffin)
• James Patterson, author (with Chris Grabenstein and illustrator Juliana Neufeld) of Treasure Hunters: Secret of the Forbidden City and House of Robots: Robots Go Wild (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
• Nathan Lane, author (with Devlin Elliott and illustrator Dan Krall) of Naughty Mabel (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers) – Master of Ceremonies.

Registration for BEA, which runs from Wednesday, May 27, through Friday, May 29, at the Javits Convention Center, opened in December. This year’s festivities will kick off on Tuesday evening, May 26, with the American Booksellers for Free Expression’s Annual Children’s Book Art Auction and Reception at Hotel ABA, the Grand Hyatt New York, located at 42nd Street and Grand Central Terminal.

As in previous years, all ABA member stores are eligible to receive free admission to the trade show and BEA conference sessions.

ABA member booksellers who have not attended the trade show since 2012 are invited by BEA to fill out an application to win one of 60 BEA Scholarships of $435 to help defray hotel and travel costs to the show. To qualify for the scholarships, booksellers must also stay at least one night at Hotel ABA.

Register for BEA here; then reserve a room at the Grand Hyatt New York.

Watch for news and updates about ABA programming at BEA in upcoming editions of BTW.