Children’s Book Festival

princeton children's book festival 2018 poster by angela dominguez

Presented by the Princeton Public Library with sponsorship by jaZams. Poster art by Angela Dominguez

Friends! Romans! Tri-State Countrymen! Travel henceforth to Princeton this weekend for the Princeton Public Library‘s legendary Children’s Book Festival! Every year, scores of talented authors and illustrators gather under the library’s big white tents in Hinds Plaza, meeting fans and signing books.

My personal highlights over the past 12 years of the book festival…receiving writing advice from Rebecca Stead, seeing my buddy Galen Longstreth sharing her adorable book, Yes, Let’s, and having a breakfast chat with Pseudonymous Bosch before the event. My library was there in 2010 as well, doing a “Books Done Wrong” activity!

The public library always invites terrific authors and illustrators. Here’s the 2018 line-up if you’d like to see it. But if we may be so bold as to make a few blog connections to this year’s festival attendees?


Tracey Baptiste: The author of The Jumbies now has a sequel out called, Rise of the Jumbies. I interviewed Tracey in 2016. Her books are suspenseful, spooky, and straight up awesome.

Margery Cuyler: Margery’s Skeleton for Dinner is totally hilarious, and we hope we did her book justice with our dancing, glowing skeleton marionette project.

them bones

Ame Dyckman: Ame has had three featured projects on our blog! A robot marionette for Boy + Bot, a bouncing baby wolf for Wolfie the Bunny, and a raucous tea party game for Tea Party Rules. She’s inspired so many projects…probably because her books are so fun and amazing.

Steve Light: Master wielder of all things fountain pen, Steve caught our eye with Zephyr Takes Flight, and we just HAD to do a steampunk airship project. We had to!

one amazing airship

Zachariah OHora: Zachariah’s distinctive illustrative style has graced blog twice in books, once for Wolfie the Bunny and again for The Teacher’s Pet. We’re dying to do a project for The NOT So Quiet Library.

Lauren Magaziner: Lauren’s book, Pilfer Academy, was a featured book at To Be Continued in 2016. Our book-related activities involved lots of sneaking around, stealing things, and a green crepe paper streamer laser maze. Oh yeah.

navigating-the-lasers

Wendy Mass: I interviewed Wendy in 2009 and WOW has she been busy, including being on the New York Times Bestseller list for The Candymakers! She recently released Bob, a book she co-wrote with Newbery Medal winner Rebecca Stead.

Christopher Silas Neal: Christopher’s gorgeous, minimalistic, vibrant illustrations in Over and Under the Snow inspired a winter hibernation snow-scape project that was a huge hit at story time.

winter is coming

Anica Mrose Rissi: I just posted a hamster-rific blog project for her book, The Teacher’s Pet, along with an author interview. So now you have to go to the festival meet Nica and see all her other fantastic books!

Sean Rubin: I did a blog feature on Sean’s debut graphic novel Bolivar in 2017. Bolivar is an astounding work of art and really must been seen in person. Now’s your chance!

bolivar 6_artwork by sean rubin

Daniel Salmieri: Daniel has written and illustrated many books, but we loved his work on Meet The Dullards, and fashioned our boring-not-boring blog project on his playful artistry.

Liz Garton Scanlon: Liz’s book In the Canyon is full of playful, vivid rhymes. We tried to capture some of the wonder she evokes with our own enormous cardboard canyon.

hiking the canyon

Rebecca Stead: How often do you get to meet a Newbery winner? I interviewed Rebecca about When You Reach Me in 2011 and she has continued to write amazing, thoughtful, and deeply meaningful books.

David Ezra Stein: ‘Ol Mama Squirrel? Best. Book. Ever. I couldn’t stop laughing when I read it aloud during story time! And weirdly, the squirrel tree puppet project went viral in China. Wow.

puppet in action

Audrey Vernick: Buffaloes and drum sets. Need I say more? OK, how about winning a giant pet whale? Audrey’s hilarious books such as Teach Your Buffalo to Play Drums and I Won a What? inspire us.

Rowboat Watkins: We made cake hats with attitudes for Rowboat’s fantastic Rude Cakes. But much to our delight, he popped up unexpectedly in this post about Books of Wonder in NYC.

headgear with attitude problems


The Children’s Book Festival is Saturday, September 22m from 11am to 4pm in Hinds Plaza of the Princeton Public Library, rain or shine. Books are available for purchase at the event through jaZams, our incredible, local, independent, family-owed toy store. We hope to see you there!

Legendary

books of wonder nyc photo 5

New York City is quite the literary town, but there is one place I hear about repeatedly in my line of work. The famous, fun, and fabulous children’s bookstore, Books of Wonder. On a recent trip to the city, Katie and I stopped by their 18th Street location to bask in the stuff of legend.

Independently owned and operated, Books of Wonder first opened its doors in 1980. Originally slated to sell antiquarian children’s books, the stock soon expanded to encompass new children’s books as well. In 37 years of business, Books of Wonder has moved, expanded multiple times, coordinated events both large and small, launched a publishing division, and become the keepers and champions of Frank Baum’s Oz books. Another interesting fact – Books of Wonder inspired the setting for the children’s bookstore in You’ve Got Mail, right down to being measured, photographed, and rebuilt on the movie’s sound stage.

books of wonder nyc photo 2_1Books of Wonder is PACKED with a huge selection of books. The books are so enticingly displayed, you just want to grab one and read it right away (and plenty of readers were camped out on the floor and in little chairs, doing just that). They have quantities of signed copies too.

books of wonder nyc photo 3Katie left with not one but two signed copies of The Girl Who Drank the Moon (the 2017 Newbery winner). Once I torn myself away from the stacks, I turned my eyes to the quirky and inviting decor.

Layered on endcaps, tables, walls, and bookshelves are posters, original artwork, and characters from illustrated books. It almost feels like you’re inside some sort of awesome pop-up book. Do you recognize the dragon in the image that started this post?

legendary 2Yup! It’s by author and illustrator Steve Light, wielder of the fountain pen extraordinaire (we made these fantastical steampunk airship for his book, Zephyr Takes Flight). The artwork pops up in unusual places too. Curious George swinging from a light fixture…

books of wonder nyc photo 6A street scene on the floor of the gallery:

books of wonder nyc photo 7The back wall of the store is dedicated to Books of Wonder’s extensive antiquarian and rare books section.

books of wonder nyc photo 8Here you can find an amazing array of your favorites. If you’re wondering how much a first edition of Where the Wild Things Are (inscribed, with an original sketch) is going for these days, it’s $22,500.

books of wonder nyc photo 9Not far from the rare books, I was delighted to find a real live author signing books! In fact, I shouted across three shelves of retail space to tell Katie that Rowboat Watkins was in the store. Rowboat is the author and illustrator of Rude Cakes (which I love, and which we story timed here). His newest book is Pete With No Pants. Not only did I get a signed copy of Rude Cakes, Rowboat let me model his awesome headgear.

dr. dana and rowbot watkins, rude cakesMoving towards the front of the store, I soon discovered “Blind Date With A Book.”

books of wonder nyc photo 10Essentially, it’s a book wrapped in brown paper with a suggested age range, genre, and enticing teaser. YES!

books of wonder nyc photo 11I almost bought this one…

books of wonder nyc photo 12One more fantastic detail. At the front of the store are thank you illustrations from visiting artists. It reminded me of the fabulous conference room walls at the Mazza Museum (which you can see at the end of this post).

books of wonder nyc photo 13Here’s my personal favorite:

books of wonder nyc photo 14Katie and I spent a happy hour shopping Books of Wonder before we had to dash to catch our train. My only regret is that I spotted this cool canvas logo bag as I was walking out the door. Too late to go back and snag it, darn it!

books of wonder nyc photo 15But not to worry. I’ll definitely return. In fact, in September a second location will be opening on 217 West 84th Street. If you’re in town, definitely make Books of Wonder a destination. Just be prepared to leave with LOTS of books. This store is bursting with love for children’s books. How can you resist taking some of the love home with you?

Headgear with Major Attitude Problems

headgear with attitude problemsNot in the mood to say please, thank you, or wait your turn in line? Are you grabbing stuff that isn’t yours, refusing to share, and not listening to others? This rude behavior could describe you. Or it could be your HAT.

We read Rude Cakes by Rowboat Watkins (chronicle books, 2015). Rude cakes are just that. Rude. They never say please or thank you. They take things that don’t belong to them, refuse to listen, don’t wait their turn, and never share. Interestingly, giant cyclopses absolutely LOVE rude cakes….to wear as jaunty hats of course (what else would they do with cake?). When a rude cake finds itself unceremoniously hoisted onto the head of a giant cyclops, it’s feeling pretty grumpy. And get this – giant cyclopses are perfectly behaved. They say thank you and please. They share and wait their turns in line. After a day of observing nothing but good behavior, the rude cake/hat finally learns to say please (as in “Please. I’m not a hat. I’m I tired cake, and I would like to go to bed now.”).  Perhaps being polite has its benefits after all!

You’ll need:

  • 1 plastic hat
  • A strip of poster board (mine was 6″ x 25″)
  • 1 standard-sized paper plate
  • Cake decorating supplies (more on those below!)
  • cake eyes and mouth template, printed on 8.5″ x 11″ card stock
  • Scissors, tape, and glue for construction
  • Hot glue

We used “Neon Happy Birthday Derby Hats” from Oriental Trading Company ($7.50 a dozen). Oriental Trading also sells child-sized black plastic top hats ($7 a dozen). Those work too!

cake hat step 1Circle a strip of white poster board around the crown of the hat and attach it with tape. You don’t want your cake hat to be towering above your head, so our poster board strips were just 6″ tall. Additionally we offered the poster board in 3 different color choices: white, pink, or brown.

cake hat step 2Next, cut a paper plate to fit the top of the poster board circle, then attach it with tape or hot glue.

cake hat step 3Time to decorate! We cut a number of scalloped icing drips from white, pink and brown construction paper. We also offered crepe paper streamers, patterned tape, pipe cleaners, cotton balls, and assorted pom-poms.

When the decorating is done, cut a mouth from the template and attach it to your cake (you decide – is your cake smiling or frowning?). Attach the eyes as well, using a black maker or dot stickers to add pupils. Finish the look with ric rac ribbon eyebrows.

cake hat step 4We had sheets of tissue paper available for those who needed to make their hats a little more snug. But I have to share the following innovation with you – a pipe cleaner hat strap and jaunty tissue paper cape. May I present…the most dapper…Captain Cake!

captain cake