March 28 & 29, 2009
Theresa Breslin
Scottish author, Theresa Breslin is an award-winning writer and librarian. She is committed to promoting reading and writing to young people. Her work is in translation in a number of languages and ranges from young readers to young adult/adult and has been filmed for television and dramatized on radio. She is also a respected contributor to professional journals. Of her books and awards, Simon's Challenge, her first book, won the Young Book Trust Fidler Award for new writers, Whispers in the Graveyard, her remarkable story about a dyslexic boy, was awarded the Carnegie Medal, and Remembrance, about a youth in World War I, was selected for the American Library Association's Best Books for Young Adults, and New York Public Library's Books for the Teen Age. Website: www.theresabreslin.com
Michael Cart
Michael Cart is a nationally recognized expert in children's and young adult literature. He was a past President of the Young Adult Library Services Association, and now teaches young adult literature at UCLA. He is also a columnist and reviewer for ALA's Booklist magazine and the author or editor of eight books, including From Romance to Realism, a critical history of YA literature; My Father's Scar, a young adult novel (an ALA Best Book for Young Adults), and the anthology Love and Sex: Ten Stories of Truth, also a Best Book for Young Adults and a Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers. He is the recipient of the 2000 Grolier Foundation Award. He lives in northern California.
Sarah Ellis
Vancouver author and librarian, Sarah Ellis has taught courses in contemporary Canadian Children's Literature and Children's Fantasy Literature and teaches writing at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She was a core lecturer and writing seminar leader at the former Children's Literature New England Summer Institutes. She writes a book review column for Quill and Quire and often for the Horn Book Magazine. Her books include, The Several Lives of Orphan Jack, From Reader to Writer: Teaching Writing Through Classic Children's Books, and The Queen's Feet. Awards include the Sheila Egoff award for Back of Beyond, The Baby Project and Odd Man Out, the Mr. Christie Book Award, The I.O.D.E. Violet Downey Award for Out of the Blue, the Governor-General's Award for, Pick-Up-Sticks, and The Canadian Authors' Association Vicky Metcalf Award for A Body of Work.
Marilyn Nelson
Poet Marilyn Nelson is a professor emeritus of English at the University of Connecticut; founder and director of Soul Mountain Retreat, a small writers' colony; and (2001-2006) Poet Laureate of the State of Connecticut. She is the author or translator of twelve books and three chapbooks. Among her award-winning books, The Homeplace won the Annisfield-Wolf Award and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Fortune's Bones was a Coretta Scott King Honor Book and won the Lion and the Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Poetry. Carver: A Life in Poems won the Boston Globe/Hornbook Award and the Flora Stieglitz Straus Award. Her honors include two NEA creative writing fellowships, a Fulbright Teaching Fellowship and the Connecticut Arts Award. Website: www.blueflowerarts.com
Rosemary Wells
Author/illustrator Rosemary Wells is a passionate and dedicated advocate for literacy and education. Her 150 books for children have received numerous awards and honors that include over twenty ALA Notable Children's Book citations and a Boston Globe/Horn Book Award. She began her career in children's books working as a designer at Macmillan in New York. The success of her second book, Noisy Nora, helped her to earn the reputation as one of today's bestselling picture book authors. She was surrounded by books as a child and has always recognized the importance of reading and literacy campaigns. Read to Your Bunny, has sold over a million copies. Published in 1998, it was the perfect book to help promote then First Lady Hillary Clinton's 1997 "Prescription for Reading Program." The companion book, My Shining Star, shares with every parent and teacher, the ten principles sure to help any child succeed.
Photo: Tim Coffey
Junko Yokota
Dr. Junko Yokota is Professor of Reading and Language at the National College of Education of National-Louis University in Chicago, Illinois, and the Director of the Center for Teaching through Children's Books. She has been an elementary school teacher, school librarian and has served as a consultant; guiding curriculum development and providing professional development for teachers. A frequently invited speaker at professional conferences throughout the U.S. and in many countries, her publications include Children's Books in Children's Hands, two columns that review children's books, as well as journal articles and book chapters. She has served on the Caldecott and Newbery Award Committees, and is a recipient of the Virginia Hamilton Award for Contribution to Multicultural Literature.
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