GBF – The Greatest Book Festival!

As an enthusiastic member of the Gaithersburg Book Festival Committee, I was thrilled to see our lineup of featured children’s authors and illustrators, which included: Dianna Hutts Aston, Cece Bell, Gennifer Choldenko, Paul Czajak, Alexis Frederick-Frost, Laura Gehl, John Green, Steve Light, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Dave Roman, Aaron Reynolds, Syl Sobel, Maris Wicks, Timothy Young among others.

Paul Czajak reads Monster Needs Your Vote.

A family oriented event, the GBF also offers outstanding  (if I do say so myself!) series of children’s and teens workshops and other entertainment in the Children’s Village and Young Adult Pavilion.

2016 Children’s Workshops included:

 

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Despite the rainy (and cold) weather, our dedicated guests arrived in full rain gear.  And stayed.  And listened. And participated in the many author talks and workshops.  It was a wonderfully creative and enthusiastically attended community event, led by a group of totally awesome lovers of literature…Cannot wait for next year’s event!

Gaithersburg Book Festival

The 2016 GBF Children’s Village:  About  100 Reasons to Bring the Kids on 5/21

 

Getting Graphic with Dots and Books!

My students and I are gearing up for a fabulous celebration of International Dot Day.  Here’s a sneak peek at the splash of color that decorates the hallway walls at Brookhaven ES. Image

I also wanted to share some additional Dot Day resources created by Peter Reynolds which includes posters and certificates of participation.

I have a few openings in my International Dot Day Skyping schedule, and would love to connect with you!    Please take a look at the Google Doc that lists everyone connecting the dots through  Skype video chats.

On a completely different note, I was excited to spend my Saturday at the Small Press Expo, where I got the chance to meet amazing graphic novelists Raina Telgemeier, Dave Roman, John Green, and Gene Luen Yang, and also listen to a very informative conversation between Raina and Gene about their work.

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Raina has a great newsletter, and her fall edition included a series of blog posts about the graphic novel creation process – a great set of resources for the MCPS 3rd grade Marking Period 3 writing project.

 

If you haven’t done so already, consider building your graphic novel collection.  An informative article by Scholastic Books explains what the graphic novel format is, and how graphic novels promote literacy  – this is a great resource to share with those that are wary of the format.  

For a list of great graphic novels for the grade 4-6 set (in addition to the titles by the authors listed above!) visit the Maryland Association of School Librarians 2013-14 Maryland Black-Eyed Susan nominees for the new graphic novel division.

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