The 15th annual Winter Institute took place in Baltimore from January 21–24. The event brought together approximately 800 indie booksellers from across the country, 140 authors, and several hundred other industry professionals. We’ve gathered a selection of children’s book-related highlights from the event.

Scholastic hosted a dinner with 20 booksellers, featuring a few of the publisher’s spring and summer 2020 debut authors: (from l.) Leah Johnson (You Should See Me in a Crown), Maria Scrivan (Nat Enough), Breena Bard (Trespassers), and Sam Wedelich (Chicken Little: The Real and Totally True Tale).

Booksellers and Candlewick employees feted author Thomas Taylor (back, fifth from l.), author of Gargantis; Christina Soontornvat (front row, second from l.), author of A Wish in the Dark; and Cynthia Salaysay (front row, third from r.), debut author of Private Lessons, at a celebratory dinner at Aldo’s Ristorante Italiano.

Christina Uss, author of The Colossus of Roads (Holiday House) and Matthew Cordell, author-illustrator of Hello, Neighbor!: The Kind and Caring World of Mister Rogers (Holiday House/Porter).

Dean Atta, YA author of The Black Flamingo (Hodder). Photo: Ann Dye.

Emma Straub, adult author and owner of Books Are Magic in Brooklyn, with author Jason Reynolds (Stamped, Little, Brown).

The Disney sales and marketing team hosted a bookseller dinner at Bar Vasquez for friends from Changing Hands, Waucoma Bookstore, Bright Side Bookshop, Boogie Down Books, Red Balloon Bookshop, Book Soup, La Playa Books, Maria’s Bookshop, The Golden Notebook, and Cupboard Maker Books. They were joined by authors Brandy Colbert (The Voting Booth, Disney-Hyperion) (back row, sixth from r.) and Tehlor Kay Mejia (Paola Santiago and the River of Tears, Disney/Riordan) (fifth from r.) with her editor, Stephanie Lurie (between Colbert and Mejia).

Newbery Medalist Rebecca Stead signed copies of her new novel, The List of Things That Will Not Change (Random House/Lamb).

Joseph Kuefler, illustrator of The Night Is for Darkness by Jonathan Stutzman (Balzer + Bray), with booksellers at the HarperCollins author dinner.

Traci Chee, author of the YA novel, We Are Not Free (HMH), about a group of young Nisei (second-generation Japanese American citizens) whose lives are irrevocably changed by the mass U.S. incarcerations of WWII.

(From l.) Deborah Wiles (Kent State), Scholastic president and publisher Ellie Berger, Pam Muñoz Ryan (Mañanaland), Clifford the Big Red Dog, Jenny Downham (Furious Thing), and Sharon Cameron (The Light in Hidden Places) at Scholastic’s 100 year anniversary celebration.

Debut author Cynthia Salaysay (l.) signs a copy of Private Lessons (Candlewick) for fellow Indies Introduce author Jordan Ifueko, whose debut novel Raybearer (Amulet) is also forthcoming this spring.

Author-illustrator Richard Fairgray signs a copy of Black Sand Beach: Are You Afraid of the Light? (Pixel+Ink), kicking off a middle-grade graphic novel series.

(From l.): Jillian Tamaki (My Best Friend), Loriel Ryon (Into the Tall, Tall Grass), Jennifer De Leon (Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From), James Ponti (City Spies), and Deb Caletti (Girl Unframed) at the Simon & Schuster Children’s Dinner.