Three months away and plans are underway for the fifty-first Children’s Book Festival at the University of Southern Mississippi on April 11 – 13. I got my invitation to volunteer this week with the promised pay of major fatigue at the end. I can’t wait. It’s the best tired I know.
On pretty good authority, the winner of this year’s Southern Miss Medallion for his body of work in children’s literature spent a good part of his school days in the hall outside the classroom. In fact, he is said to have created his Captain Underpants in his drawings out there. Sorry to say, that opportunity would have passed for Dave Pilkey if he had been my student. I would not have trusted a dyslexic hyperactive child in the hall even when he caused major disruptions in my class. He would have been in a desk in the back in the most unobtrusive place in the room – probably with my student who drew pictures back there and has become a professional graphic artist. I’m guessing Dave could have invented the popular captain even if the hall was not in my list of options.
Other special guests that are high in my anticipation include Carole Boston Weatherford who puts the past and forgotten stories into her writing. I’m really looking forward to the Ezra Jack Keats lecture and hearing the granddaughter of Madeleine L'Engle talk about her grandmother who wrote A Wrinkle in Time. I think that is especially appropriate since Madeleine won the Newbery Award for that book in the same year that Ezra won the Caldecott for The Snowy Day. The banquet picture for the occasion shows Keats with a smug look in his white jacket with L'Engle rising several inches above him in height.
There are also the awards for the new and rising stars in the children’s book world as the Ezra Jack Keats Awards for new writers and illustrators are presented and a big celebration held for them. So many of these from years past have gone on to be bright stars in the children’s book world, and it’s fun to meet them at the beginning of their careers.
Other guest writers, who might be your favorites, can be found on the website along with information about registering for the time of your life at www.usm.edu/childrens-book-festival. You’re still in time for the early bird rate, but only if you hurry. That price ends today, February 9. It will still be a bargain at tomorrow’s rate.