Spring Celebration

1,300 participating schools, libraries and bookstores in all 50 states hosted over 5,000 events throughout the week of April 29 to May 5 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Children’s Book Week.

A look at a just a few of the types of events that took place:

• Building favorite scenes or characters with LEGOs and STEM/STEAM activities based on different children’s books.
• Several locations will bring in Paws to Read therapy dogs and a library is having a “Write to a Writer” activity.
• One indie bookstore will have a local member of the fire department in to read picture books and another will host a local heroes’ story time in the park with police and fire fighters.
• Theater companies will perform in libraries, from the Dewey Decimal Players in Mt. Airy, NC to the Bridgeport, CT Downtown Cabaret.
• Some schools, libraries and stores are hosting Book Week poster art contests, creating book starters for kids to write and illustrate their own bound books to take home, or having a make your own comic contest.
• Several schools will host bilingual Spanish/English story times and a library in California will celebrate Children’s Book Week with songs and dance from South America.
• A Children’s Book Week Tic Tac Toe Game with donated children’s books as prizes.
• A Seattle museum has paired children’s books with works of art to spark discussion.
• In addition, 100 authors and illustrators will holding events at stores and libraries during Book Week. Before these official Spotlight events, an announcement about Children’s Book Week’s anniversary will be read.

Major events of note:

• Building favorite scenes or characters with LEGOs and STEM/STEAM activities based on different children’s books.
• Children’s Book Week poster illustrators Emily Arnold McCully, Peter Sis, Rosemary Wells, David Wiesner, Uri Shulevitz, Paul O. Zelinsky, and Chris Raschka will join Leonard Marcus, author of 100 Years of Children’s Book Week Posters at Books of Wonder on Monday evening, April 29.
• The Library of Congress will livestream a special program on April 29 featuring local authors who are members of the Children’s Book Guild of DC reading from twenty special children’s books of historical significance from the Library’s collections.
• Eloise Greenfield and Jason Reynolds will be in conversation on April 30 at Takoma Park Library, organized with Politics & Prose, in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Coretta Scott King Awards.
• Cori Doerrfeld, the winner of this year’s Anna Dewdney Read Together Award, will receive a plaque and her winner’s check at a special event at the Red Balloon Bookshop in St. Paul on May 2.
• The Ivy Bookshop in Baltimore and the Maryland SPCA are co-hosting a special event May 4 with Lisa Papp and her Madeline Finn and the Shelter Dog. The SPCA will bring a shelter dog or two for a “meet and greet” with the children.
• The Curious Iguana, in conjunction with Screen Free Week, is hosting Meghan Cox Gurdon for her book, The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction.
• Two “Literary Landmark” ceremonies will take place during Book Week: On May 1 at the Harvin Clarendon County Library in Manning, SC for the Peggy Parish landmark dedication; and on May 4 at the Esther Crawford Public Library in Monticello, NY in honor of Vera B. Williams, with readings by Vera’s children. (This program is administered by United for Libraries in partnership with the CBC.)

Also, thanks to publisher generosity, these costume characters were sent out to Book Week locations: Baby Mouse, Bad Kitty, Bruce the Bear, Clifford, Elephant & Piggie, Geronimo Stilton, Gruffalo, Hedgie, Huckle Cat & Lowly Worm, Junie B Jones, Lady Bug Girl, Pete the Cat, Paddington, Peter Rabbit, Poky Little Puppy, Pout Pout Fish, Scuffy the Tugboat, Splat the Cat, Spot the Dog, and Thea Stilton.

In addition, the beautiful 100th anniversary poster by Yuyi Morales was handed out at three festivals on May 4: the Bay Area Book Festival in Berkeley, at the OMG Book Fest in St. Louis, and at the 75 book creator Hudson Children’s Book Festival in Hudson, NY– with CBC in attendance.

Many people and organizations are making the 100th anniversary of Children’s Book Week possible: hundreds of authors and illustrators, thousands of librarians, teaches, booksellers, and parents, marketing partners such as Book Con, Parents Magazine, KidLit TV, Screen Free Week, and Sesame Workshop.

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