Celebration of International Children's Literature

"Open a Door... Open a Book...
Open your Mind to the World"

8th Annual International Children's Literature
and Young Adult Literature Celebration

Saturday, November 21, 2009
Memorial Union, Madison, WI

Registration

Registration for the Celebration is $40 for students and $70 for all others. Registration includes the workshop, book, poster, and lunch with the authors.

Registration must be received by Monday, 16 November 2009. Seating is limited, so please register early. We cannot accept payments on location at the Memorial Union. Late registration will be accepted based on availability.

To register by mail you can download a Word or PDF version of the registration form to mail in with payment.

You can also register and pay online (Visa of Mastercard) using the appropriate buttons below. Please consider which of the following four books you would like to work with and choose that author's name on the form.

Bintou’s Braids, by Sylviane Diouf (2004) "My name is Bintou and I want braids. My hair is short and fuzzy." So laments the heroine in the straightforward style she uses to narrate her story. Diouf creates strong female characters and evokes the feeling of a small village as extended family. When Bintou helps save two drowning cousins and asks that braids be her reward, Grandma Soukeye finds a way to adhere to village tradition while acknowledging Bintou's heroism. This heartfelt story affords glimpses of West African customs as it touches on children's universal desire to be treated as grown-ups. Ages 4-8.

A Group of One, by Rachna Gilmore (2005) A 15-year-old Canadian daughter of Indian immigrants gets embroiled in an inevitable clash of cultures in this skillful novel about loyalty, forging a sense of self, and history, both personal and political. Tara’s father announces his mother will be paying an extended visit from India. Tara vacillates between her allegiance to her mother and the riveting power of Naniji's stories about her experiences as part of Gandhi's Indian Independence movement. Gilmore is particularly adept at portraying the two formidable women and their relationship with each other. Readers will embrace Tara as she stands up to her family and her school to bravely claim her own history and, along the way, reappraises her own assumptions. Ages 12-up.

Tashi and the Baba Yaga, by Anna Fienberg (2007) The fifth book in the series finds Tashi sharing a wild tale about Baba Yaga, a witch whose house stands on chicken legs and who likes eating children baked in pies. The excitement continues as this little adventurer recounts his daring escape from the wicked Baron, who traps him as a prisoner for the fearsome River Pirate. When Tashi foils the Baron’s evil plan, Jack’s dad is mesmerized by his bravery. Ages 4-8.

Silent Music, by James Rumford (2008) “My name is Ali. I live in Baghdad.” In just a few lines per page, a young Iraqi boy describes his favorite things: soccer, loud “parent-rattling” music, dancing, and, most of all, Arabic calligraphy. When bombs fall on the city, Ali, inspired by his hero, Yakut, a 13th-century calligrapher, calms himself with his pen. Rumford, who has included Arabic calligraphy in previous titles, fills his multimedia collages with large, looping script that spells out the words and phrases that Ali writes. Many children will have connect with Ali’s first-person voice, which echoes the calligraphy’s graceful rhythm and tells a simple, powerful story about a child’s everyday survival and hope in wartime Baghdad. Grades 1-3.