The Decatur Book Festival

It's back and it's huge. The Decatur Book Festival, the largest independent book festival in the country, will occupy my entire Labor Day weekend. It's an astonishing opportunity to hear and meet children's authors. I can't believe we are so lucky! Take your kids. Send me pictures of your kids with famous authors. Let your kids know these are the "celebrities" we celebrate in our reading school.

Here are some of the authors I hope to hear:


Avi. One of the most honored, legendary and accomplished writers on the planet. With over 60 books to his name, every Paideia student will encounter his work during the course of their elementary years.






Victoria Bond. Her fictional portrait of Zora Neale Hurston, for upper elementary students, is an exquisitely researched and emotionally resonant study set in Eatonville, Florida.






Tony DiTerlizzi. One of the creative geniuses behind The Spiderwick Chronicles and the illustrator of the creepily haunting poem The Spider and the Fly.




Brian Eames. The hottest new author in the world. Get it. Read it. He'll even sign it. (I've read a draft of the sequel. More Kitto. We need more Kitto.)







Kathryn Erskine. Mockingbird, the wrenching story of a girl whose brother was killed in a school shooting rampage, is rightfully honored for its intimate portrayal of the interior life of Scout, who struggles mightily with her grief and her own developmental disability.




Tim Green. The former Atlanta Falcon is not only the nicest guy in the world, he has gotten more guys to read than I can count. Gripping sports stories featuring kids with real-life problems and lots of humor.





Gordon Korman. Another author of page-turners that kids devour. I can't keep his series Island, Everest and Chasing the Falconers in stock. And there's more!





Lauren Myracle. I love Lauren Myracle. She consistently ranks at the top of the ALA's most frequently challenged author: people keep trying to get her books removed from school libraries. She stuck to her principles with Luv Ya Bunches, refusing to change a family with two moms to a family with a mom & a dad.


Andy Runton. How do you teach a child to make an inference while reading? Give her one of the Owly books. These graphic novels, with their comic and touching friendship tales, help the reader learn to interpret facial expressions and more.




Judy Schachner. The wild and crazy (and mixed-up) Skippyjon Jones remains one of the most beloved critters in our library.




Judy Sierra. How would I ever run my library storytimes without the incredible folktales collected and re-told by this master folklorist? Most of our students can recite the refrain from Tasty Baby Belly Buttons and other Judy Sierra selections.




And here's this week's Go Animate (click here if the embed doesn't work) to help explain library procedures. These are becoming popular beyond my wildest expectations; even our youngest students get the irony of these little creatures (rabbits? aliens?) speaking with deep robotic voices, occasionally mispronouncing words (cf. "sofa"). One parent told me her child walks about the house reciting "The Library Rules." And more than one child exclaimed to me, "He's crying! But his voice doesn't sound like he's crying! It's so funny!"

GoAnimate.com: I Forgot My Book! by PithyPython