Six Children’s Authors Will Speak at 2016 Bookworm Festival

Bookworm Festival Flier (Spanish/English) >>

Six popular, award-winning authors and illustrators of children’s books will speak and sign books during the district’s 2016 Bookworm Festival on Saturday, Feb. 6, at Spring Oaks Middle School, 2150 Shadowdale.

Doors will open at 9 a.m. A full morning program is scheduled from 9:30-11 a.m. on Saturday morning. The keynote talk will be delivered by Mac Barnett, a New York Times bestselling author who has written 18 children’s books, including his most recent, Leo, A Ghost Story, with illustrator Christian Robinson.

The festival program, free and open to the public, is supported by a grant from the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation provided by Phillips 66, as well as the Spring Branch Education Foundation.

Spring Branch ISD’s Innovative Resource Media Systems, which includes district librarians, and Blue Willow Bookshop sponsor this highly popular family activity and annual gathering of national-level writers and young students.  

“The best thing about Bookworm is the connection our kids make with the authors. They interact with them during the presentations and in the [book] signing lines afterwards. The questions and insights the children have about the books amazes me! The whole experience is incredibly rewarding!” proclaims Melanie Scales, a Spring Shadows Elementary School librarian who chairs the Bookworm Festival Planning Committee this year.

Keynote speaker Barnett has collaborated on two Caldecott prize-winning books in collaboration with Jon Klassen. They are Sam & Dave Dig a Hole and Extra Yarn, which has also won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award and the E.B. White Read-Aloud Award.

In addition, Barnett wrote the Brixton Brothers mystery novel series and, with Jory John, the Berkeley, Calif., resident Barnett collaborated on The Terrible Two.

Other writers and illustrators who will share their latest works and present during the upcoming Bookworm Festival include:

• Doreen Cronin, Bloom and Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type
• Jennifer Sattler, Chick ‘n’ Pug series including The Love Pug
• Stephen Savage, Where’s Walrus? series and Polar Bear Night illustrator
• Emma Virjan, author/illustrator of What This Story Needs is series, and the new book, What This Story Needs is a Pig in a Wig
• Salina Yoon, Be a Friend author and illustrator

For more event information and to view the day’s full schedule, please visit the Bookworm Festival website at www.bookwormfestival.org.

Media queries should be directed to Cathy Berner at Blue Willow Books through contact@bookwormfestival.org or by phone at 832-452-2160.