Events and Appearances

The 2025 Proposal Window is now closed. Sign up for our newsletter to be the first to hear about the opportunity to submit a proposal for 2026 (happening this fall)!

We hope to select locations for 2025 no later than mid-April, with all locations being notified one way or the other by the end of April, latest.

Things to Know if Your Location is Selected

• Travel expenses for official National Ambassador events are covered by Every Child a Reader and the Library of Congress. 
• Books will be provided for every student at Mac’s school events. 
• Each official visit will follow an event template (see below). 
• Selected locations will work directly with Every Child a Reader to adapt and personalize as necessary. 
• Selected locations must complete a post-event survey and provide links to any media coverage obtained.

Basic Event Template

School event basic Run of Show

• 40 minutes in length
  • Welcome and Introduction
  • Mac’s brief talk on what it means to be National Ambassador and his platform
  • Mac to read and discuss two picture books
  • Q&A with students
  • Conclude with Mac’s reading of his own picture book (same book will be provided to the student body in advance of the visit)
• In order to connect with the full student body, Mac is able to do 2-3 sessions on the same day

Public event basic Run of Show

• 1 hour in length
  • Welcome and Introduction
  • Mac’s brief remarks on what it means to be National Ambassador and his platform
  • Mac will read excerpts from various titles and discuss the components used in this art form to enhance the story
  • Q&A with audience
  • Read aloud demonstration using one of Mac’s titles
• Will focus on more contemporary titles
• Audience will be provided with a “How to Read a Picture Book” handout
• Event can be followed by book sales with a partner bookseller and signing

About Mac Barnett and his National Ambassador Platform

Mac Barnett is a New York Times-bestselling author of stories for children. His work has been translated into more than 30 languages and sold more than 5 million copies worldwide. Barnett’s books have won many prizes, including two Caldecott Honors, three New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Awards, three E.B. White Read Aloud Awards, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, Germany’s Jugendliteraturpreis, China’s Chen Bochui International Children’s Literature Award, The Netherlands’ Silver Griffel, and Italy’s Premio Orbil. He is the co-creator, with Jon Klassen, of “Shape Island,” a stop-motion animated series on Apple TV+, based on their best-selling Shapes series of picture books. Barnett lives in Oakland, California. 

During his two-year term as the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, Barnett will celebrate the children’s picture book through his platform, Behold, The Picture Book! Let’s Celebrate Stories We Can Feel, Hear, and See. Barnett will explore the deeply impactful ways picture books blend words and illustrations to create a uniquely powerful reading experience, one that is often the foundation for a lifetime of reading. Ultimately, Barnett will assert the picture book is a quintessential American art form and deserves its rightful place among the best American literature.

Read More.

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