Joint Committee Meets to Plan BEA Children's Bookselling Program

The Children's Booksellers and Publishers Committee met on Monday, September 15, in New York City, to develop events for BookExpo America 2004, to be held from June 2 - 6 in Chicago. At the meeting, the group, a joint committee of ABA, the Association of Booksellers for Children, and the Children's Book Council, considered speakers for the show's Friday morning Children's Book and Author Breakfast and also planned the Thursday afternoon children's booksellers' educational sessions. The meeting of publishers' representatives, booksellers, and organization administrators, was held at the Children's Book Council offices in Manhattan.

The list of speakers will be announced in February or March, along with all of the other authors appearing at BEA, according to Jill Perlstein, ABA's director of marketing and the association's staff liaison to the Committee.

Beth Puffer, of Bank Street Bookstore in New York City and co-chair of the 2003-2004 Children's Booksellers and Publishers Committee, told BTW, "We try to create a line-up that will amuse, touch, and, hopefully, move the people who attend. We strive for a good balance of ages and types of books. I can't say anything more, but people will be very excited about the selections."

Booksellers representing ABA on the joint committee also met with ABA's CEO Avin Mark Domnitz, COO Oren Teicher, and members of the Book Sense marketing staff on Sunday, September 14, at the association's headquarters in Tarrytown, New York. Discussions centered on a number of Book Sense-related topics including the Children's Book Sense 76, BookSense.com, and the BookSense.com Co-op Reimbursement Program.