Wednesday, November 7, 2018

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 

____________________


2012
Jerry Spinelli, Patricia Maclachlan, Leslea Newman
____________________


____________________

2015 (part 1)
Pierre Collett-Derby, Tommy Greenwald, Pamela Zagarenski


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

____________________



2017 (part 1)
Marc Brown, Carol Weston

2017 (part 2)
Gordon Korman, Cammie McGovern
____________________
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

35 comments:

  1. World building is tough - I don't blame her for using real places if she can.

    ReplyDelete
  2. How lovely to have met with and listened to so many fantastic book magicians. I'm Looking forward to the next book fair in Frankfurt. Hugs, Valerie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Valerie- The book fair in Frankfurt sounds like lots of fun! :)

      Delete
  3. I am so looking forward to reading more about this fair. And a tad envious.
    Love the arboreal fireworks which were on display too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. EC- We hope you get to go to a book fair near you too. The trees were definitely putting on a show. So beautiful! :)

      Delete
  4. You are two very busy authors! I so admire illustrators. Thanks for featuring Barbara here today.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lee- It was a ton of fun. Illustrators are amazing. We love Barbara. :)

      Delete
  5. Sounds like a great festival!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Looks like you had a great time. So many books. Such fun.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sure looks like a grand time was had, even giant checkers.

    ReplyDelete
  8. What a wonderful event and how beautiful Connecticut is in the fall! Glad you had such an amazing time! Thanks for sharing it with us.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Michael- We are lucky because CT is gorgeous in the fall. We had a beautiful drive to the fair and tons of fun once we were there. :)

      Delete
  9. Sounds like a wonderful experience - again!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Armchair Squid- We keep going back- it's that much fun. :)

      Delete
  10. Oh my goodness! My idea of heaven, I look forward to part 2.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wow! I loved looking at the photos through the years! Looking forward to more!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad you enjoyed the photos through the years. :)

      Delete
  12. I loved all the pictures and your narrative of your time there. I'll be looking for The Dollar Kids on Goodreads to get the synopsis. The cover and your thoughts are promising!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Adriana- The story behind the book was fascinating. We look forward to reading it too. :)

      Delete
  13. Looks a wonderful event, loved seeing all of your photographs too.

    Book fairs, book shops, books are amazing :)

    All the best Jan

    ReplyDelete
  14. What an amazing time! Such a great experience! I can't wait to read more about this event!! Big Hugs!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Magic Love Crow- We only wish we had more money to spend. :)

      Delete
  15. Looks like a very fun fair, good you got so many wonderful pictures. I'm curious about that big stuffed dog in the middle!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Marcia- It does look like a stuffed dog- but it is actually a person in a character costume. I am not sure which character- maybe, Spot?

      Delete
  16. Oh it looks like yall had a great time :) My mom would love something like this :)

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hi Jess and Stephanie - it looks like it was loads of fun - with some wonderful authors and illustrators around you ... which would have suited you both down to the ground ... just lovely photos and cheery thoughts for us to read and think about ... cheers Hilary

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hilary- We loved every second and got to be surrounded by fantastic books, readers, and writers. :)

      Delete
  18. Whoops. Only now noticed that I started in the wrong direction when commenting today, haha :D Sorry about that. But yay for having a great ime at this book fair :D Love all the photos. <3

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for stopping by and commenting. We love to hear your thoughts! We had to turn on comment moderation due to a high volume of spam. Fairday's Blog is no longer accepting awards. We appreciate all the nominations that we have received and are honored to have been mentioned! Happy Reading!

Twitter Bird Gadget Twitter Bird Gadget