Much on Tap for Children's Booksellers at BEA

Thursday, May 29, at BookExpo America will be replete with activities of interest to children's booksellers, beginning with the annual meeting of the Association of Booksellers for Children (ABC). Registration and box-lunch pick up will begin at 11:45 a.m. until 12:15 p.m. All those pre-registered for the meeting can pick up a free box lunch.

The ABC annual meeting will run from 12:15 p.m. - 12:45 p.m., followed by lunch and a presentation by Hyperion, the lunch sponsor, until 1:00 p.m. From then until 1:45 p.m., participants can network and socialize. For information and pre-registration, contact ABC Executive Director Anne Irish at (800) 421-1665, fax (608) 836-1438, or e-mail airish3900@aol.com [1].

The afternoon children's bookselling program, sponsored by the Children's Booksellers and Publishers Committee -- a cooperative committee of the American Booksellers Association, ABC, and Children's Book Council (CBC), will run from 2:00 p.m. - 4:15 p.m., and will feature "Books Too Good to Miss."

For the first half hour, Chris Crutcher (King of the Mild Frontier, Whale Talk, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes) will discuss the creative process with his editor, Virginia Duncan of Greenwillow Books. Then, Children's Book Buzz will run from 2:30 p.m. - 3:45 p.m. Editors and marketing staff from a variety of publishing houses will present exciting new titles in small roundtable sessions. Participating publishers include Candlewick Press, Harcourt Trade Publishers, HarperCollins Children's Books/Katherine Tegen Books, Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, Hyperion Books for Children, Little, Brown & Co., Peachtree Publishers, Scholastic/Blue Sky Press, Simon & Schuster, and Walker & Co.

At 3:45 p.m. the programming will conclude with a special presentation by children's literature specialist and educator Esme Raji Codell. Codell is the author of Sahara Special (Hyperion) and Educating Esme: A Diary of a Teacher's First Year (Algonquin).

Booksellers can top the night off at the ABC Sixth Annual Secret Garden Silent Auction and Evening with Children's Booksellers to be held at The Empress Pavilion in Chinatown, beginning at 5:45 p.m. The auction will immediately precede the traditional Chinese banquet. New this year will be dinner speakers, including Cornelia Funke, author of The Thief Lord and an upcoming fall release (Chicken House/Scholastic, Inc.). Admission to the auction and dinner is $60 for ABC members and $75 for nonmembers. Reservations are necessary, and the deadline for reservations is May 9. Contact ABC for information and reservations.

Friday morning from 8:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. will be the Children's Book and Author Breakfast, at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The breakfast is presented in cooperation with the ABA/ABC/CBC Children's Booksellers and Publishers Committee. Speakers include Barbara Park, author of Junie B. Jones, First Grader: Toothless Wonder (Random House Children's Books); Walter Dean Myers and Christopher Myers, creators of Blue's Journey (Holiday House); and Robert Sabuda, creator of Alice in Wonderland: A Classic Collectible Pop-Up (Little Simon/Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing). Admission is $25, and the event is open to all BEA attendees. Tickets are available through BEA registration.