Recently, an author showcased his popular characters at a sporting event; an author presents to an all-girls audience; a writer celebrates an award win; and a bookstore’s reading program helps the community.
Willems Goes Out to the Ball Game
On September 3, the Brooklyn Cyclones hosted Mo Willems Night in honor of Willems’s newest picture book, The Pigeon Will Ride the Roller Coaster! (Union Square Kids). Willems threw out the first pitch of the game and gave a reading from the new book. Guests were able to meet and take photos with characters Elephant, Piggie, and The Pigeon, who made his first-ever appearance at the event.
An All-Girls Revolution
Author Sherri Winston made her first stop on her three-city tour celebrating her new middle grade novel Lotus Bloom and the Afro Revolution (Bloomsbury). Winston partnered with independent bookstore Brave + Kind in Decatur, Ga., and nonprofit organization Readers to Dreamers for an appearance at Hutchinson Elementary School. There, Winston gave a presentation to an all-female audience, held an activity where students helped create their own characters, and gave each student a signed copy of the book.
Going for Gold
The 24th International Latino Book Awards, held August 19–20 at Los Angeles City College, honored author René Colato Laínez with the Gold Medal for Best Bilingual Children’s Fiction Picture Book for his book Let’s Be Friends/Seamos Amigos (Holiday House).
Read a Book, Plant a Tree
Copperfield’s Books in Petaluma, Calif., got its community of young readers motivated with the Summer Reading Challenge: Read a Book, We’ll Plant a Tree. For each book purchased and read over the course of the summer, Copperfield’s requested “proof of reading” in the form of a hand-drawn picture of a tree. The program ended last week, and Copperfield’s commitment resulted in the planting of 850 trees.
