26th Annual Conference on Children’s Literature and 11th Annual Ashley Bryan Art Series

“Reading Is Not Optional”  ~  Friday, April 26, 2013  ~  9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Conference Speakers | Workshop

The joint Conference on Children’s Literature and Ashley Bryan Art Series offers a learning opportunity to those who encourage children through books including teachers, librarians, media specialists, child care workers and parents. The Conference is free of charge. Presenters’ books and CDs will be available for purchase and autographing. Books & Books will be the book vendor for the Conference.

Parking is available in the adjacent City Park garage (east side of the library) for $1.25 per hour. Park on levels 2 or 3.

The joint Conference on Children’s Literature and Ashley Bryan Art Series is sponsored by the Friends of Fort Lauderdale Libraries, the Friends of the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center, Florida Center for the Book, and the Broward Public Library Foundation.

Broward County Main Library, first floor auditorium, 100 S. Andrews Ave., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
For further information, contact Youth Services Administration at 954-357-7336, lhyatt@browardlibrary.org

Walter Dean Myers
In 2012, Walter Dean Myers was named National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature a program, sponsored by the Library of Congress and the Children’s Book Council. The position was created to raise national awareness of the importance of young people’s literature in relation to lifelong literacy and education in the development of the lives of youth of all ages. Mr. Myers has received two Newbery Honors, five Coretta Scott King Awards, and the inaugural recipient of Kent State University’s Virginia Hamilton Literary Award for Lifetime Achievement. He is the critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of more than eighty books for children and young adults, including Sunrise Over Fallujah, Fallen Angels, Monster, Somewhere in the Darkness, Slam!, Harlem, Jazz, and Scorpions. In addition, he was the winner of the first Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in young adult literature given by the American Library Association for Monster. In 2010 he received the Rutgers University Award for Literature for Young Adults from the New Jersey Center for the Book and the Rutgers School of Communications and in 2008, Myers won the May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture Award. With the wide range of published work including poetry, fiction, nonfiction and picture books the prevailing message is one of hope - “Hold yourself up and believe in what you can do.”

Shane Evans
Shane Evans is a creative force. His talents include artist, author, illustrator, musician, songwriter, and founder of Dream Studio, a community art space in Kansas City, Missouri. He studied art from 5^th grade through college, and has received international recognition as the 2012 Coretta Scott King Winner for Underground: Finding the Light to Freedom. Evan’s accolades range from being honored by Laura Bush at the 2002 National Book Festival, The Boston Globe Horn Book Award, the 2011 NAACP Image Award, and the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children. With more than thirty books to his credit, Evans received acclaim for his work in Osceola, The Way A Door Closes (Coretta Scott King Author Award), Underground (Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award), the successful trilogy of African American history Nobody Gonna Turn Me Round, Shaq and the Beanstalk, Olu’s Dream, Chocolate Me, and Take It To The Hoop Magic Johnson. The widely popular Disney Channel Shanna Show is based on characters created by Evans for the Shanna book series such as Shanna’s Teacher Show, Shanna’s Ballerina Show, and Shanna’s Princess Show. A prevailing theme for Evans has been following through with ones dreams, “Once you start to live your dream then you have to honor the fact that you have to help others to live theirs.”

Gerald Hausman
Gerald Hausman is an award-winning writer, editor, teacher, folklorist and multicultural storyteller who has published over seventy books for children and adults. He has received 35 awards and honors from the American Folklore Society, Bank Street College of Education, Parent’s Choice, and the American Library Association. Often refering to himself as “a native of the world” after living in so many places in the United States and the West Indies. He spent more than twenty years in New Mexico where many of his American Indian folktales were collected and published. His many books focus on Native American themes and animal mythology. Hausman has performed storytelling throughout the U.S. and Europe, and is known for his lively, engaging style. His sound effects-creaking doors, song birds, growling dogs, frogs, wind and waves, and “things that go bump in the night”-have been recorded on audio books. Hausman’s multicultural programs are on the History Channel, Kennedy Center, and National Public Radio. Gerald Hausman stated that the secret of his storytelling magic is that he comes from a long line of storytellers and educators - “I was born into this profession and was telling tales at age five.”

Jane Kitson
Jane Kitson, a.k.a. a modern day Mother Goose, is a national early childhood educational consultant and published author from Atlanta, Georgia. She has lived in Illinois, Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, Texas and Georgia where she taught Pre-K, Kindergarten, and second grade, and now works with hundreds of children each week in schools as Mother Goose.

As an author of over 350 original songs and fingerplays that enhance early language skills for children, 2-7, in preschools, daycare centers, Head Starts and Kindergartens, Jane Kitson’s  presentations provide dynamic strategies for enriching early literacy programs. Emphasis is placed on the importance that rhythm, rhyme, and repetition have in developing “ready-to-read” skills.

This fast paced hands-on, interactive workshop will incorporate finger plays, music, movement and puppets designed to provide innovative strategies to enhance early literacy programs for children ages 2-7. Participants will learn a range of new activities that are age appropriate for stimulating auditory awareness, listening skills, language skills, and oral motor skills. A primary objective is for librarians and teachers to develop their own dynamic program ideas.

Online Registration Form

Registrations are no longer being accepted.

For questions or concerns, contact Youth Services Administration at 954-357-7336, lhyatt@browardlibrary.org