This event has been cancelled. It will be rescheduled for 2021.
Appalachian State University’s Belk Library, Instructional Materials Center and the Reich College of Education (RCOE) are hosting the fifth biennial Children’s Literature Symposium March 28, 2020.
Date: Saturday, March 28, 2020
Time: 8:30 am - 3:30 pm
Location: Reich College of Education, Appalachian State University
Why Attend
The symposium is designed to raise awareness of the importance of children’s and young adult literature. Author Meg Medina and author/illustrator Lauren Castillo will present keynote addresses. Medina and Castillo will lead break-out sessions that introduce approaches for using children’s literature to facilitate the language arts in educational settings. Castillo will lead participants in a foam printing illustration workshop.
The theme for this year is Exploring Empathy, Imagination and Agency in Children's Literature. The symposium invites participants to personally experience the power of children’s novels and picture books. These award-winning children’s book authors offer educators opportunities for imaginative entry into the worlds of characters who explore and claim agency in their lives and evoke empathic responses from their readers.
The symposium is sponsored by Chuck and Pauletta Parker, Mary Helen Ridenhour, Charles and Elaine Graham, and the Martha and Nancy Lee Bivens Distinguished Professorship for Children and Reading. Learn more about the symposium!
Schedule
Cost for the symposium includes lunch. Please RSVP today!
8:30 am - Check-In
9:00 am - Welcome and Introductions
9:15 am - Keynote Address - Meg Madina
10:00 am - Break
10:15 am - Concurrent Sessions
11:30 am - Lunch
12:15 pm - Keynote Address - Lauren Castillo
1:00 pm - Break
1:15 pm - Concurrent Sessions
2:30 pm - Book signing
About Meg Medina
Meg Medina is an award-winning and New York Times best-selling author who writes picture books, as well as middle grade and young adult fiction.
Her works have been called “heartbreaking,” “lyrical” and “must haves for every collection.” Her titles include:
- Merci Suárez Changes Gears, 2019 John Newbery Medal winner, and 2019 Charlotte Huck Honor Book;
- Burn Baby Burn, long-listed for the 2016 National Book Award, short-listed for the Kirkus Prize, and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize;
- Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass, winner of the 2014 Pura Belpré Author Award;
- The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind, a 2012 Bank Street College Best Children’s Book of the Year;
- Mango, Abuela, and Me, a 2016 Pura Belpré Author Honor Book; and
- Tía Isa Wants a Car, winner of the 2012 Ezra Jack Keats New Writers Award.
When she’s not writing, Meg works on community projects that support girls, Latino youth, and/or literacy. She serves on the National Board of Advisors for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and is a faculty member of Hamline University’s Masters of Fine Arts in Children’s Literature. She lives with her family in Richmond, Virginia.
About Lauren Castillo
Lauren studied illustration at the Maryland Institute College of Art and received her MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She is the author and illustrator of the 2015 Caldecott Honor winning book, Nana in the City, as well as The Troublemaker and Melvin and the Boy. Lauren has also illustrated several critically acclaimed picture books, including Kirkus Prize finalist Imagine by Juan Felipe Herrera, Twenty Yawns by Jane Smiley, and Yard Sale by Eve Bunting. She currently draws and dreams in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
About the Instruction Materials Center
The mission of the Instructional Materials Center is to:
- Provide resources and services to support the Teacher Preparation and School Media Specialist Programs of the Reich College of Education and educators in the ASU Public School Partnership;
- To lay the foundation for the development of professional collaboration patterns between teachers and librarians/school media specialists; and
- To model an exemplary school library media center.
About the Reich College of Education
The Reich College of Education is comprised of the departments of Curriculum and Instruction; Family and Child Studies; Human Development and Psychological Counseling; Reading Education and Special Education; Leadership and Educational Studies; and the Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership.
Children's Literature Symposium Poster
