Here is a fact that I am sure most of our readers may not know.
The Storybook Capital of America is just a short drive from here, in Abilene Texas. Every summer the Abilene Cultural Affairs presents a festival celebrating the summer exhibiting artist at the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature (NCCIL), also located in Abilene.
This year the Children’s Art and Literacy Festival (CALF) will be held June 13 through June 16 in downtown Abilene. The artist celebrated in this years’ festival is LeUyen Pham, who has written and illustrated more than 120 books. In 2020 she won a Caldecott Honor for illustrations in the book “Bear Came Along.” With funding from the Friends of the Dickens County-Spur Public Library we have added “Itty-Bitty Kitty Corn,” written by Shannon Hale and illustrated by LeUyen Pham, to our children’s section of the library. It will be read to the children of Dickens County this week at Story Time.
Story Time coordinator and volunteer Joanna Bateman and I attended the annual Abilene Public Library’s Spring Workshop on Monday March 4. There was quite a bit of information packed into the one-day session. Hopefully we can implement some of the exciting things we learned into our library. One of the highlights of the session was lunch at the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature. The artwork on display by these truly great artists is phenomenal. After lunch we watched a short piece highlighting last years’ festival, which honored New York Times bestselling author/illustrator and Caldecott honoree Brian Lies. To see the highlights from last years’ festival and learn more about the upcoming festival visit https://abilenecalf.com. We also have flyers about the event available at the library.
I would like to personally thank the city of Abilene and the Abilene Public Library for putting on this wonderful workshop every year. At the end of the day there were donated books for the registrants to look through and take home to our libraries.
One of the books is “Sophomore Year is Greek to Me” by Meredith Zeitlin, a laugh-out-loud high school adventure for junior high through high school aged children. Soph- omore Zona Lowell has lived in New York City her whole life and plans to follow in the footsteps of her renowned-journalist father. But when he announces they’re moving to Athens, Greece, for six months so he can work on an important new story, he must have an ulterior motive. See, when Zona’s mother married an American, her huge Greek family cut off contact. But Zona never knew her mom, and now she’s supposed to uproot her entire life and meet possibly hostile relatives on their turf? Thanks, but no thanks.
We have two from Linda Joy Singleton’s Curious Cat Spy Club series. In “Kelsy the Spy” Kelsey can’t resist collecting secrets in her spy notebook just like her hero, Harriet the Spy. When she learns Leo has been hiding something from the group, she writes his secret in her notebook as well. But when the notebook goes missing, everything she’s collected about classmates, friends, and family could be revealed to the world! After receiving a ransom note, Kelsey tries to solve the mystery on her own. But she soon realizes she needs help from everyone in the CCSC to rescue the notebook, help a homesick 130-year-old Aldabra tortoise, and unmask a thief.
In “The Mystery of the Zorse’s Mask” a mysterious stranger claims to own Becca's beloved zorse, Zed, and the Curious Cat Spy Club fears he might be responsible for abusing Zed in the past. Kelsey, Becca, and Leo are determined to uncover the truth before they have to give him away. But when a daring rescue attempt puts Kelsey in danger, does the CCSC have enough spy skills to save her, or are theyinovertheirheads?The Curious Cat Spy Club series is for grades 3 through 7.
