2014 Mt. Airy Kids' Literary Festival, or Blog Post Full of Links!

The 8th Annual Mt. Airy Kids' Literary Festival -- three days of authors, illustrators, workshops, games, parties, music, and more -- begins tomorrow, Friday, May 16!

Schedule and event information:
- Festival schedule on our website.
- Facebook event page (schedule included).
- Link to our most recent events newsletter, which contains a partial schedule breakdown by age groups.

Interviews here on the blog with four of the attending authors:
- David Wiesner, author of Mr. Wuffles and Flotsam.
- Judy Schachner, author of Bits & Pieces and the Skippyjon Jones series.
- Shawn K. Stout, author of Penelope Crumb.
- Jill Santopolo, author of the Sparkle Spa series.

Link for half-price Cat in the Hat tickets at the Arden Theatre, Saturday, May 17, 7pm. (Discount applies for Saturday evening performance only; use the code CATSAT). Update 5/16: Tickets are now sold out for this performance, though it's possible to check back and see whether anyone has cancelled.

Another offsite event: Where's Waldo? hunt at Henry School around the corner!
The C.W. Henry School will be having their annual Fun Fit Fest on Saturday afternoon, and they'll be hosting our Where's Waldo? event: a literary hunt with exciting prizes.

Diversity in kids' literature challenge:

Authors and independent bookstores are organizing to change increase diversity in children's literature by concentrating on one book with racially diverse characters both inside *and* on the cover, to show that it can succeed. Authors Kate Messner and Shannon Hale (see her Tumblr post announcing the challenge), and now John Green, have challenged Indie bookstores to make the page-turning new middle grade novel The Great Greene Heist a best seller, and The Big Blue Marble Bookstore is taking on the challenge. Will you? The bookstores that sell the most copies are eligible for great prizes, which we'll happily share with customers who pre-order a copy.
The Great Greene Heist comes out on May 27, so we'll be taking pre-orders during the Kids' Lit Fest. All orders placed from now until Monday May 19th will be given a 20% discount.

May 17 is Indies First Storytime Day, and we have a listing!
Indies First is the brainchild of Sherman Alexie, who asked his fellow authors to "… be a superhero for independent bookstores [and] spend an amazing day hand-selling books at your local bookstore…" Now, Indies First honors Children's Book Week with Indies First Storytime Day on May 17. Authors and Illustrators across the country will appear at their local indie as a story hour reader volunteer.

Follow one of the map links (by state or by store) to see our listing (and others nearby), and if you're not local to Philly, check out the other readings listed throughout the country!

Hope to see you this weekend!