by Rebecca Ballenger, Associate Director of Worlds of Words Center
The Worlds of Words Center adds original illustrations from 55 picturebooks to its holdings as a result of a recent crowdfunding campaign and donations of art by Mary J. Wong. The new pieces are from classic, award-winning, and global children’s literature and include works by illustrators visiting for the Tucson Festival of Books. A selection of the new acquisitions will be on display leading up to the book festival and for UArizona Museum Day at Worlds of Words in the University of Arizona College of Education.
Project FOCUS student Daniela Garcia (first-year) and Elementary Education major Lily Volmer (sophomore) compare an original illustration by Jason Chin to its final version. Chin’s work for Watercress earned the 2022 Caldecott Medal.
By Kathy G. Short, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Festivals are an opportunity to connect with well-known authors who win awards and are on best-selling lists. Plenty of those authors are coming to the Tucson Festival of Books this year, such as Kate DiCamillo, Donna Barba Higuera, Roshani Chokshi, John Parra, Sayantani DasGupta, Jennifer Nielson, Kazu Kibuishi, R.L. Stine, Marissa Meyer, Shelby Mahurin, and Gene Luen Yang. They will appear on panels, solo sessions, and workshops, giving readers a chance to talk with the authors they admire and love to read.
What is often overlooked is that festivals are also an opportunity to meet new authors and illustrators who are making their mark on the field, adding their books as new favorites. Recent illustrators who have published picturebooks will appear on panels and give illustrator studios this year. Jonathan Nelson is the Diné illustrator of Forever Cousins (2022) and A Letter for Bob (2023), demonstrating his commitment to illustrating Native stories by Native authors. A Letter for Bob celebrates the treasured family car that has taken a young girl’s family through happy and sad times. In Lian Cho’s new picturebook, Oh, Olive! (2023), Olive loves to smear, spatter, and splash with a brush in each hand, but faces the displeasure of her parents who are serious artists, painting proper perfect shapes. Continue reading →
By Kathy G. Short, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
As a long-time attendee and presenter at professional conferences for educators, book festivals were a new genre for me when I first started working with the Tucson Festival of Books 14 years ago. I quickly realized that the audience was much broader for a festival, many of whom are parents, children and teens with different preferences than educators. A festival needs to balance authors who have popular appeal and write series books with authors who are critically acclaimed, and well-known authors with emerging authors. The sessions also need to offer laughter and playfulness as well as discussions of critical issues.
Over time, we have developed different types of sessions for the children/teen section of the festival to appeal to the different audiences. The overall festival has over 300 authors and 130,000 attendees. 65 of those authors are picturebook authors/illustrators, middle grade authors, graphic novel creators, and young adult authors, who present over 100 sessions. One strength of our program for children and teens is that many of the sessions are in rooms that seat 40-50 people to allow for more intimate interactions with authors, instead of only large auditoriums where authors are at a distance. This WOW Currents highlights the types of sessions and a few of the authors who are coming this March. Go to the festival website for a full list of authors and sessions for the entire festival. Continue reading →
Meet Chris Grabenstein and celebrate his new graphic novel, Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library. This bestselling book is now a full color, fun-packed graphic novel in which a group of game-loving kids must solve every clue to find the hidden escape route out of the town’s new library. Visual clues and book covers are embedded into the panels.
Chris will introduce his new book and process of writing, invite children to solve puzzles, and answer questions.
Host: Kathy Short, UArizona Regents Professor and Director of WOW. Panelist: Chris Grabenstein Co-Sponsor:Tucson Festival of Books
Chris Grabenstein is the bestselling author of the Lemoncello series, the Smartest Kid series, the Dog Squad series, the Wonderland series, the Haunted Mystery series, and The Island of Dr. Libris. He loves to write fast-paced, fun, and funny pageturners for kids. In his head, he’s still twelve years old–maybe ten.
Imagination Fridays is co-sponsored by the Tucson Festival of Books and Worlds of Words/University of Arizona and will occur from 1-1:45 p.m. once a month on a Friday from September to December with a different author or illustrator. Add some excitement to Fridays with world-renowned children’s authors and illustrators to promote new books and encourage children as readers, writers and illustrators.
Meet Raúl the Third, presenting his newest ¡Vamos! book. ¡Vamos! Let’s Go Read is a joyful story about literacy as Little Lobo and his friends visit a book festival at the local library, each hoping to find the book of their dreams. Bilingual celebration of Mexican American culture and books.
Raúl the Third will introduce his new book, share his process of writing and illustrating, invite children to sketch along with him, and answer questions.
Host: Kathy Short, UArizona Regents Professor and Director of WOW. Panelist: Raúl the Third Co-Sponsor:Tucson Festival of Books
Raúl the Third is an award-winning author/illustrator of the ¡Vamos! series and the illustrator for the Lowriders series by Cathy Camper. He is the co-creator of Strollercoaster and Stuntboy. He grew up between El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, México, and now lives in Boston.
Imagination Fridays is co-sponsored by the Tucson Festival of Books and Worlds of Words/University of Arizona and will occur from 1-1:45 p.m. once a month on a Friday from September to December with a different author or illustrator. Add some excitement to Fridays with world-renowned children’s authors and illustrators to promote new books and encourage children as readers, writers and illustrators.
Meet Joanna Ho, the author and illustrator of Say My Name. Names reveal generational ties and histories, weaving an intricate tale of the past. Names — and correctly saying them — are important. Each one carries the hopes, dreams and traditions of those that came before us. Six captivating kids of Chinese, Tongan, Persian, Diné, Mexican and Ghanaian descent proudly celebrate their names, languages and cultures. Joanna Ho’s lyrical story explains how saying a person’s name is the only way we can truly know another.
Joanna will share her new book and process in creating the story, invite children to participate in an activity and answer questions.
Host: Kathy Short, UArizona Regents Professor and Director of WOW. Panelist: Joanna Ho Co-Sponsor:Tucson Festival of Books
Photo by Katie Heiner
Joanna Ho Joanna Ho is the bestselling and award-winning author of many books for children, including Eyes that Kiss at the Corners, Playing at the Border, and Say My Name. She is a writer and educator with a passion for anti-bias, anti-racism and equity work. She has been an English teacher, a dean, the designer of an alternative-to-prison program, a creator of educator professional development, and a high school vice principal. She lives in the Bay Area, where she survives on homemade chocolate chip cookies, outdoor adventures, and dance parties with her kids.
Imagination Fridays is co-sponsored by the Tucson Festival of Books and Worlds of Words/University of Arizona and will occur from 1-1:45 p.m. once a month on a Friday from September to December with a different author or illustrator. Add some excitement to Fridays with world-renowned children’s authors and illustrators to promote new books and encourage children as readers, writers and illustrators.
Meet Adam Rex, the author and illustrator of The Story of Gumluck the Wizard, a new early chapter book series. In this absurdly silly and heartfelt book, a wee wizard is on a quest to become a helpful hero by doing the bidding of rude, ungrateful townspeople. Narrated by a sarcastic raven, this noodlehead tale introduces a goofy magical kingdom along with questions about truth and lies.
Adam will share his new book, his process in creating the story, invite children to create their Gumluck adventure, and answer questions.
Host: Kathy Short, UArizona Regents Professor and Director of WOW. Panelist: Adam Rex Co-Sponsor:Tucson Festival of Books
Adam Rex is the New York Times best-selling author and illustrator of Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich, On Account of the Gum, Are You Scared Darth Vadar and The True Meaning of Smekday (made into the animated movie Home). He is the author of Oh No, The Aunts Are Here and Pluto Gets the Call, and the illustrator of Chu’s Day. He has also created art for games like Dungeons and Dragons and Magic: The Gathering. He lives in Tucson, Arizona with his cat, dog, son and wife. Visit him at https://www.adamrex.com/ or follow him on Twitter.
Imagination Fridays is co-sponsored by the Tucson Festival of Books and Worlds of Words/University of Arizona and will occur from 1-1:45 p.m. once a month on a Friday from September to December with a different author or illustrator. Add some excitement to Fridays with world-renowned children’s authors and illustrators to promote new books and encourage children as readers, writers and illustrators.
The Tucson Festival of Books goes virtual March 6-7, 2021! The Children’s and Teen sessions will be available on-line and live at 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Arizona time. Worlds of Worlds: Center of Global Literacies and Literatures has been involved with the festival since its inception, and we will continue this year as your guide. Download a PDF version of the schedule of the Children’s and Teen sessions. For an accessible schedule, visit tucsonfestivalofbooks.org.
Host: Kathy Short, Professor of Teaching, Learning and Sociocultural Studies and Director of WOW Panelists: Kevin Noble Maillard and Juana Martinez-Neal Co-Sponsor:Tucson Festival of Books
Kevin Noble Maillard is the author of Fry Bread and a regular writer and former contributing editor to The New York Times. Currently based in Manhattan, he splits time between the city and upstate New York, where he is a tenured professor of law at Syracuse University. Originally from Oklahoma, he is an enrolled citizen of the Seminole Nation.
Juana Martinez-Neal is an illustrator of books for children, including the award-winning La Princesa and the Pea, Alma and How She Got Her Name and Fry Bread. Juana was born in Lima, Peru, where she grew up surrounded by amazing meals prepared by her mom and amazing paintings made by her dad and granddad. She now lives, eats and paints in Scottsdale, surrounded by her amazing children.
Imagination Friday is co-sponsored by the Tucson Festival of Books and Worlds of Words, University of Arizona College of Education and occurs Fridays from 1 to 1:40 p.m. through December 2020 with a different author or illustrator each week. Add some excitement to Fridays with world-renowned children’s authors and illustrator to promote new books and encourage children as readers, writers and illustrators.
Join Molly Idle and Beth Ferry to hear about their new picturebook, We Believe In You. Animals inspire their little ones to chase their dreams and reach for the stars. This stunning picturebook is about the joy of believing in yourself and in one another! Molly and Beth share the process of writing and illustrating their new book, invite children to create their own stories and answer questions.
Host: Kathy Short, Professor of Teaching, Learning and Sociocultural Studies and Director of WOW. Panelists: Molly Idle and Beth Ferry Co-Sponsor:Tucson Festival of Books
Beth Ferry is the New York Times bestselling author of Stick and Stone, illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld, The Scarecrow illustrated by The Fan Brothers, and many other books. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, three children and two bulldogs.
Molly Idle is the author and illustrator of the Caldecott Honor Book Flora and the Flamingo and the Flora series, the Rex series and Pearl. Molly lives in sunny Arizona with her marvelous, multi-generational family which includes her brilliant husband, two mercurial sons, two remarkable parents and a pair of snugly cats.
Imagination Friday is co-sponsored by the Tucson Festival of Books and Worlds of Words, University of Arizona College of Education and occurs Fridays from 1 to 1:40 p.m. through December 2020 with a different author or illustrator each week. Add some excitement to Fridays with world-renowned children’s authors and illustrator to promote new books and encourage children as readers, writers and illustrators.
Meet Joanna Ho, the author and illustrator of 
Adam Rex is the New York Times best-selling author and illustrator of Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich, On Account of the Gum, Are You Scared Darth Vadar and The True Meaning of Smekday (made into the animated movie Home). He is the author of Oh No, The Aunts Are Here and Pluto Gets the Call, and the illustrator of Chu’s Day. He has also created art for games like Dungeons and Dragons and Magic: The Gathering. He lives in Tucson, Arizona with his cat, dog, son and wife. Visit him at https://www.adamrex.com/ or follow him on 
