2008 Children / Teens Participants

Listed in alphabetical order

Anna Alter

Crafting Stories - Saturday 10:15 AM

Anna Alter is the author and illustrator of many popular books for children, including Francine’s Day, The Purple Ribbon, and Priscilla and the Hollyhocks. She writes and illustrates books that encourage children to be creative people and allow them to find their place in the world. Anna believes books to be an important place for children to learn about themselves and is always enthusiastic about sharing her passion for books with the children who read them. In addition to writing and illustrating books, Anna has taught children of all ages, shows her paintings in galleries and other venues around New England, and frequently visits schools to speak with children about her work.
Visit her website at www.annaalter.com

Terry Farish

So You Want to Be a Famous Writer - Saturday 11:45 AM
Story Time - Saturday 2:15 PM

Terry Farish has written fiction for children, young people, and adults. She has worn many other hats — including Red Cross worker in Asia, children’s librarian, waitress, and editor — but the work that always holds her is writing, a skill she continues to learn with every day, every word. Her children’s book, The Cat Who Liked Potato Soup, won a Blue Ribbon from the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books and an award for Outstanding Work of Children’s Literature from the New Hampshire Writers’ Project. Terry has taught nonfiction writing at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies and fiction workshops at Rivier College. Her essays and articles have appeared in Regional Review and School Library Journal and on New Hampshire Public Radio and Transom.org. Terry has presented programs in many schools and libraries and has led writer’s workshops for writers of all ages. She lives and writes in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Natasha Friend

So You Want to Be a Famous Writer - Saturday 11:45 AM

A former middle-school teacher and camp director, Natasha Friend is the author of three novels for young adults. Perfect, a Book Sense Pick, won the Milkweed Prize for Children’s Literature in 2004 and Nebraska’s Golden Sower Award, Young Adult Category, in 2007. Lush was named a 2007 ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers. Entertainment Weekly called Bounce, published in 2007, “one terrific coming-of-age novel.” Friend, who lives in Connecticut with her husband and two little boys, is hard at work on her fourth book.

Stephanie Greene

What’s the Big Idea? - Saturday 9:00 AM

Stephanie Greene is the author of many award-winning books for children, including the Owen Foote chapter book series, the Sophie Hartley middle grade novels, and the Moose and Hildy early reader series. Her coming-of-age novel, The Lucky Ones, will be published by Greenwillow Books this fall. Stephanie is a graduate of the Vermont College MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults, and she is a member of the Author’s Guild and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord

Green Bookmaking for Families - Saturday 12:30 PM

Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord has been teaching bookmaking since 1990 with an emphasis on making books with children. She is the author of several books, including Multicultural Books To Make And Share and Hands-On History: Middle Ages. Her one-of-a-kind and limited edition artists’ books have been exhibited nationally and internationally and are in the library collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Yale University, Wellesley College, and the University of Arizona. Her works have been featured in several books about bookmaking, including Cover to Cover, The Art and Craft of Handmade Books, and Handmade Books and Cards. Visit her website at www.makingbooks.com.

Ann McCrea

Create a Sculpture - Saturday 2:30 PM

For over twenty years, Ann McCrea has fostered children’s love of literature with storytelling and sculpting. A clay and collage artist, she is the director of Kids•Art, programs for six-to-twelve-year-olds in her Newburyport studio. Her CLAY•WORKS program for schools and libraries is based on the power of storytelling to inspire children to experience art-making as part of our humanity.

Mary Newell DePalma

Welcome Spring with Mary Newell DePalma - Saturday 1:00 PM
Story Time - Saturday 2:15 PM

Mary Newell DePalma is the author and illustrator of three children’s books: The Strange Egg, a whimsical tale of wonder, curiosity, and friendship; A Grand Old Tree, a simple and beautiful tale about life itself; and The Nutcracker Doll, about a child’s role in the Boston Ballet Nutcracker. She has also illustrated numerous books for other authors. Learn more at www.marynewelldepalma.com

Matt Tavares

Making Picture Books - Saturday 11:30 AM

Matt Tavares’s first picture book, Zachary’s Ball, won an Oppenheim Gold Seal Award and a Massachusetts Book Award Honor, and was named one of Yankee Magazine’s 40 Classic New England Children’s Books. Matt has published five more books, all with Candlewick Press: he was the author-illustrator of Mudball and Oliver’s Game and the illustrator of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, attributed to Anonymous; Jack and the Beanstalk, written by E. Nesbit; and Iron Hans: A Grimms’ Fairy Tale, retold by Stephen Mitchell. Mudball was a finalist for several state book awards and won a Parents’ Choice Gold Award. Oliver’s Game won a Parents’ Choice Silver Honor and a Children’s Book Award from the International Reading Association. Lady Liberty, a new book illustrated by Matt, is due out in May. Matt’s illustrations have been exhibited at the Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators and at the Brandywine River Museum. He lives in Ogunquit, Maine, with his wife, Sarah, and their two daughters.

Lauren Weinstein

Lauren Weinstein Reads from Girl Stories - Saturday 10:00 AM
So You Want to Be a Famous Writer - Saturday 11:45 AM
Graphic Novel or Cartoons? - Saturday 1:00 PM

Lauren Weinstein’s most recent book, Girl Stories, was published by Henry Holt and rated one of Booklist’s top 10 great graphic novels for teens. Her work has been featured in Yale University Press’s Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories and Houghton Mifflin’s The Best American Comics 2007. Currently Lauren teaches drawing and cartooning to children and adults at the 92nd Street Y, Parsons School of Design, and the School of Visual Arts. In 2002 she was the recipient of a Xeric Grant, which allowed her to self-publish her first book, Inside Vineyland. Her comics and illustrations have appeared in The New York Times, Glamour, McSweeney’s, LA Weekly, The Chicago Reader, Kramer’s Ergot, and Seattle’s The Stranger. Currently she is working on the sequel to Girl Stories, tentatively entitled Calamity. Her sci-fi fantasy comic, The Goddess of War, will be published in February 2008 by PictureBox.