Green Earth Book Award / SU Children's Literature Festival

I was lucky enough to attend the Salisbury University Children's Literature Festival yesterday. Several authors spoke, the first of which was David Wiesner.



Nice blurry picture, eh?

Mr. Wiesner gave a fascinating talk about his influences (Edward Gorey, comic books, and some really cool 1930's wordless woodcut novels), his artistic development, and how his books evolved.

Then it was Phillip Hoose's turn:



Mr. Hoose talked about Hey, Little Ant, as well as the process of researching The Race to Save the Lord God Bird.



Finally, there was a panel about environmental writing. The authors talked about integrating environmental awareness into their books.



From left: Adrian Fogelin, Jean Davies Okimoto, the facilitator, O. R. Melling, and Cambria Gordon.




In the evening, I attended the Green Earth Book Award ceremony and reception. You can read about all of the award winners here.

In attendance were SU president Dr. Janet Dudley-Eschbach, dean of libraries Dr. Alice Bahr, and representatives from the Maryland State Department of Education. It was wonderful to see so many distinguished people turn out to support a children's lit award.