CT Children's Book Fair 2018: Part 1

It's obvious we love books. There's nothing more magical than falling into the pages of a good story. That's why we get excited in November to visit the Connecticut Children's Book Fair. It's a beautiful season for a drive to the UCONN campus, and the foliage displays made the scene pop this year. We enjoyed perusing the tables of books, chatting with the authors, and learning about their stories.

Fall leaves paved the way, and we found ourselves caught up in story magic. Today we're featuring highlights from the author presentations we attended at the fair on Saturday.

We purchased their books, and we're looking forward to sharing our reviews.



Enjoy our recap in part one of the CT Children's Book Fair, and tune in on Friday for part two.

Happy reading! ~ Jess & Stephanie

Barbara McClintock

Illustrator

Barbara McClintock is a lovely person and a brilliant illustrator. It's always inspiring to hear her talk about her work. The intricate details craftily woven into her illustrations are delightful. What's truly amazing about Barbara McClintock's art is that it's all done by head, heart, and hand—the most ancient and modern forms of technology. The processes involved in creating art like this are extensive. They're not for the faint-hearted and involve a lot of double-stick tape. Wrangling words in line is tricky, but painting numbers in scenes can get sticky.

Creative forces were brewing, casting spectacular colors through the windows. Time was running short, and I didn't get to ask a question, but after learning about the different phases that an illustration goes through before it's a scene in a book, I wondered which part of the process Barbara McClintock enjoys most. There's so much love that goes into this kind of creation, I would be interested to know what part of making art gives her the most satisfaction.

Barbara McClintock & Jessica Haight

It was a pleasure to meet Jennifer Richard Jacobson who talked about her middle grade book, The Dollar Kids. The inspiration behind this story is unique and the characters sound intriguing. This author approaches concepts of death and community from an open and inquisitive perspective, laying the foundation for a thought-provoking story. It's interesting to know that she does not like to world build, but rather uses real places as the settings for her books. This adds a realistic texture to her writing, and we're looking forward to checking out The Dollar Kids and Paper Things.

Jennifer Richard Jacobson & Stephanie Robinson

Stop by Friday for part two of our trip to the CT Children's Book Fair. Featuring:

Robbi Behr & Matthew Swanson, The Real McCoys

Brenna Burns Yu, The Birthday Fortune

Below are highlights from previous Connecticut Children's Book Fairs that we've attended. 

—Click on the year to visit the post for book fair coverage

—Click on author names that are linked to read an interview 

2011
Grace Lin, Sarah Weeks

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2012
Jerry Spinelli, Patricia Maclachlan, Leslea Newman
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2013
Ann Martin, Tui Sutherland, Phoebe Stone, Nick Bruel

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2014
Barbara McClintock, Anika & Christopher Denise, Chris Grabenstein, Nora Raleigh Baskin, Kevin Sherry, Natalie Lloyd
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2015 (part 1)
Pierre Collett-Derby, Tommy Greenwald, Pamela Zagarenski

2015 (part 2)
Cynthia Lord, Wendell & Florence Minor, Jeanne Birdsall

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2017 (part 1)
Marc Brown, Carol Weston

2017 (part 2)
Gordon Korman, Cammie McGovern

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Jessica Haight & Stephanie Robinson are co-authors of the Fairday Morrow books. They have been friends since they met in English class in 9th grade. They enjoyed chatting about books then, and they still do. When they're not solving a mystery with the DMS, they keep up with the book buzz and help spread the news about stories they love.

"It's interesting to find out the story behind the story. There's so much that goes into the birth of a book, and it's fascinating to meet the faces behind the scenes. The Connecticut Children's Book Fair offers a great opportunity for readers, writers, and artists of all ages to connect with each other and talk about books." ~ Jessica Haight