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Children's Book Authors

“A Playground of Books” at the Ninth Annual Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival

October 18, 2022 by Alexa Troob

Save the Date for the 10th Annual Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival:  September 30, 2023

Chappaqua, NY— On Saturday, October 15, over 150 authors and thousands of visitors gathered at the Chappaqua Train Station over a shared love for literature.  And this year, the Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival, which took place on a picture-perfect autumn day, may have been the largest one yet.

When asked to compare CCBF with other book festivals, author Valerie Bolling shared that “this is definitely the largest; they’re all wonderful, but this is definitely the premiere event.” Similarly, author Sheetal Sheth shared admiration for the festival’s environment and size, saying that CCBF was definitely “at the top.”

This year’s theme was “A Walk Through the Woods” inspired by Hudson Talbott’s poster art. The festival fostered a charming environment filled with gourmet food trucks, food from the Chappaqua Farmers Market, themed tables, and of course an abundance of kids eager to read their newly purchased books. 

Some acclaimed authors in attendance included Victoria Kann of the Pinkalicious series and Dan Gutman of The Genius File series, to name a couple. Authors were thrilled to showcase their work to encourage their love for reading.

Sheth’s highlight of the festival was “meeting kids who are like ‘That book is in my school!’ or ‘I read that in my class!’”

Similarly, author Kip Wilson shared that “just meeting teenagers who like historical fiction is really awesome.”

The authors at the event expressed their gratitude for people who approached them to show interest in their work. And this interaction was not only meaningful for the authors, but even more so for the kids as they were able to put a face to the name on the front cover of a book that they love. As a current high-school student, I remember how much I looked forward to a visiting author in middle and elementary school who talked about their books; I always rushed straight home to read their work. And for kids at the book festival, this magic was multiplied as they got to meet and converse with not just one author, but up to 150. 

This excitement amongst children at the book festival encourages them to value books and reading. A third-grade girl who attended the festival with her sister and mother said that she “like[s] walking around to see all of the books and then read them later.” Her mother shared that their family had been attending the festival ever since they moved to Chappaqua, returning each year because of all it offers. Getting kids excited about reading is vital, especially at a young age, and the book festival did exactly that.

 The CCBF offered a vast array of children and young adult books that spanned numerous genres, allowing everyone there to explore and discover. Sheth captured the event perfectly, calling it a “playground of books.” 

The ninth annual Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival was a soaring success. Amidst the sunny weather, delicious food, and diversity of books, everyone could be seen with a smile on their face, appreciating the strong sense of community and connectedness the event fostered. 

Editor’s Note:  The Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival is lead by its founder & executive director Dawn Evans Greenberg and her all volunteer team.  The Inside Press is proud to be an official sponsor of the Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival.  Chappaqua and beyond are eagerly anticipating a milestone 10th year festival, set to take place on September 30, 2023!  – Grace

Dawn Evans Greenberg          Photo by Donna Mueller
 The 2023 Chappaqua Children’s Book festival art and save the date art are by Mark Teague, illustrator of How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight and dozens of other popular kids’ books.

 

 

Filed Under: Cover Stories Tagged With: A Walk Through the Woods, Chappaqua, Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival, Children's Book Authors, Hudson Talbot, Ninth Annual Chappaqua Children's Book Festival

The RETURN of the CHAPPAQUA CHILDREN’S BOOK FESTIVAL

August 17, 2021 by Robin Chwatko

Community, Inclusivity & History to Come Alive again this Fall on October 2

In the past year and half, COVID has caused many events and milestones to be cancelled–from birthdays to Bar Mitzvahs, vacations to family reunions. In Chappaqua, the town missed one of its most beloved events, the Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival (CCBF), which is set to make a much-anticipated return this Fall.  

Now in its 8th year, the Chappaqua Children’s book Festival will take place on October 2, 2021 with many familiar faces and traditions, as well as some changes.

“We are beyond thrilled to be back,” said Dawn Greenberg, Executive Director of, who originally championed bringing the festival to town almost a decade ago. “This feels like a true celebration, a reawakening in this town. This event truly brings our community together–from our planning committee to volunteers, local business, and even local authors–and we cannot wait to bring something familiar and joyful to town after such a rough time.”

A Community Tradition

Each year, thousands of visitors descend on Chappaqua for the CCBF, to enjoy a beautiful Fall day meeting their favorite authors and enjoying all the town has to offer. This year, due to COVID, the day might look slightly different, with a scaled back author list (about 60) and a new location (the Chappaqua Train Station), but many of the familiar faces and activities will remain, including author signings, panels, sponsor activities, and costumed characters. The festival will follow up-to-date COVID guidelines and protocols, regarding social distances, crowd numbers and masking policies.

All guests over the age of two will be required to wear masks.

“The CCBF is an “all hands on deck” volunteer event spearheaded by the indefatigable Dawn Greenberg and others who tirelessly promote literacy, reading, and countless beloved authors while reminding us that even in the era of screens, there are few things more valuable than a good ole’ fashioned paper book,” said Jeremy Saland, Acting Town Supervisor. “The Chappaqua Hamlet and greater New Castle are fortunate to host this festival and showcase the people and spirit that makes our community so welcoming to visitors and a place we are fortunate to call home.”

Despite the reduced number of authors, organizers are working to get as wide a mix as possible, from genre to subject matter and age group. Local authors and illustrators including Matt and Mara Van Fleet, Sujean Rim and Bob Bianchini will be on hand, as well as fan favorites like Dan Gutman and Alyssa Capucilli and Pat Schories of Biscuit fame. The full roster of authors and community sponsors can be found on the CCBF site.

Focus on Inclusivity

In addition to a wide mix of genres and ages, the festival will also focus on content, with an emphasis on diversity and inclusion. Celebrated author Torrey Maldanado (What Lane), Mike Curato (Flamer) and Brendan Kiely (All American Boys) will participate, with special panels and presentations in the works.

“It is our mission to represent ALL voices,” said Greenberg. “We are so fortunate to be able to draw these esteemed authors, whose works can start so many important and often difficult conversations.”

History Celebrated & Jean Craighead George, Remembered and Honored

An exciting celebration will take place at this year’s fest, of famed Chappaqua resident Jean Craighead George’s 100th birthday and the inclusion of many of her books, some unpublished. This Fall marks the debut of her never-before-seen book, Crowbar, revised by her children Luke and Twig George, and illustrated by longtime collaborator, Wendell Minor, a veteran CCBF author who will attend again this year and feature many of George’s classics in his booth. 

This celebration coincides with a new town initiative, where a local park will be named after the author, a fitting tribute to the author who wrote about nature for children.

“All is decidedly not right with the world. but when young readers, authors, illustrators, and educators converge to celebrate literacy at the Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival, all will be right with the world,” said Alan Katz, author. “The Festival is always one of my favorite days of the year, and I am thrilled and grateful that the organizers have found a safe and healthful way to bring it back. The plans to honor the wonderful Jean Craighead George make it all that more special.”

 

8th ANNUAL CHAPPAQUA CHILDREN’S BOOK FESTIVAL

Saturday, Oct. 2 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Chappaqua Train Station

ccbfestival.org or facebook.com/chappaquabookfestival

Filed Under: Cover Stories Tagged With: Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival, Chappaqua Tradition, Children's Book Authors, Jean Craighead George, literacy, reading, Safety guidelines, Volunteer Event

Diversity: A Key Focus at the 2018 Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival

August 29, 2018 by The Inside Press

The sixth annual Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival comes to town on Saturday, September 29th with more of everything–new authors, food trucks, activities and special attractions like the Bubble Bus.

Food trucks will include Mobile Pie, Walter’s Hot Dogs, The Melt Mobile and Three Little Pigs. Dessert will be available at the Great Chappaqua Bake Sale and also at Penny Lick Ice Cream’s cart which will feature a custom CCBF flavor in homage to author Bernard Most: If the Dinosaurs Came Back for Ice Cream. The Mike Risko Band and the Random Farms Kids’ Theater will provide entertainment.

Ninety-four authors including favorites like Victoria Kann, Rosemary Wells, Nick Bruel, Jane Yolen and Mark Teague will sign books and chat with their fans. Books are available through Best Book Fairs (cash or credit cards accepted). The festival, an all-volunteer effort, will also feature 18 new authors. A focus for the festival’s organizers was bringing books to a more diverse audience in 2018.

Dawn Greenberg, founder and executive director of the festival, noted: “Each year the author selection committee attempts to find books that will offer our visiting families the opportunity to be transported by our authors to different and diverse worlds, giving them a window on all kinds of characters and experiences–real and fictional.  We are thrilled to bring in a wide selection of authors and genres this year who are getting great buzz in the children’s publishing world for their riveting stories and fresh voices.”

Snapshots from 2017

Tony Abbott with kids
PHOTO BY BO ZAUNDERS

PHOTO BY JOANNA SEGAL

Filed Under: Happenings Tagged With: annual, authors, Bell School, Book Fairs, books, Bubble Bus, Chappaqua, Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival, Children's Book Authors, diversity, Event, festival, Food Trucks, New Authors, New Castle, reading

All About the Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival on October 14!

August 30, 2017 by Dawn Evans Greenberg

Notes from the Festival’s Founder!

For one glorious day each fall, authors, readers and their families flock to downtown Chappaqua for the Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival (CCBF). Founded by a group of volunteers in 2013, the festival is now considered the preeminent children’s book festival in the tri-state area.

More than 90 children’s book authors and illustrators from as far away as Maryland fill the daylong festival with laughter, excitement and fun for children of all ages. Authors take the time for conversation and inspiration, to demonstrate the art of illustration and to read aloud favorite books in the adjacent St. Mary the Virgin’s garden. Attendees can expect festival favorites such as Rosemary Wells and Jane Yolen to return plus new authors such as Betsy and Ted Lewin and Roxie Munro.

Illustration by Sujean Rim

Families can find additional activities from book making to balloon animals to a Gaga pit in the family fun area. Food trucks and the Great Chappaqua Bake Sale provide many lunch options and scrumptious dessert and treats.

Since it’s inception The Great Chappaqua Bake Sale has raised more than $130,000 for Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign and has connected children with more than 1.3 million meals. “It’s hard to believe this will be our eighth year working to raise monies to fund school and summer meals programs for kids in New York State. The Great Chappaqua Bake Sale community of supporters and volunteers make this event successful each year and we are particularly inspired by the many children who devote their time and passion to helping children in need,” noted Alison Spiegel, one of the Bake Sale founders.

A portion of the proceeds from the CCBF go to JCY-WCP literacy programs in schools throughout Westchester. The fifth annual CCBF is on Saturday, October 14th, from 10-4 pm. Admission is free. Cash and credit cards are accepted for book and food purchases. Free parking all day available at the nearby Chappaqua Metro-North train station.

For information on sponsorship and volunteering, visit www.ccbfestival.org or visit us on Facebook at Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival.

This Just In…New Not to Be Missed Authors


Betsy and Ted Lewin – Author and/or Illustrator of almost 200 children’s books plus recipients of numerous awards including the Caldecott Honor Book Medal and the NY Times Best Illustrated Award


Julie Fogliano – Author of beloved books including When Green Becomes Tomatoes: Poems for All Seasons and Old Dog Baby Baby


Roxie Munro – Author/Illustrator of more than 40 nonfiction and concept books for children using “gamification” to encourage reading, learning and engagement; NY Times Best Illustrated Award recipient


Stephen Savage – Author and Illustrator of 9 books for children, including the NY Times bestselling picture book Polar Bear Night, written by Lauren Thompson and creator of the Where’s Walrus? books, Supertruck and Little Tug

Filed Under: Cover Stories Tagged With: books, Chappaqua, children, Children's Book Authors, Dawn Evans Greenberg, Event, festival, New Authors, New Castle, The Chappaqua Children's Book Festival

Beloved Literary Duo: The Van Fleets Life as a Two-Author Family

August 30, 2017 by Janie Rosman

Matt and Mara Van Fleet and a couple best buds. Photo by Grace Bennett

Tucked behind a main street in Chappaqua is a curved road where nature and homes appear whimsical as in stories. The house behind a tree with gnarled branches is where children’s authors Mara and Matt Van Fleet inspire educational curiosity.

Sourced with talent incorporated from their background, Matt and Mara bring color, texture, science and art into their novelty and interactive books. Their focus is getting kids to read at an early age and having adults read books to toddlers when they’re beginning to read.

A biology student at Syracuse University, Matt authored children’s books for more than 20 years. “I did a cartoon panel cartooning, and after graduation I worked at a hospital lab in the city, taking art classes at night,” he said. Nine months later he quit and became secretary to the art director at Grosset & Dunlap publishers.

“We used typewriters so I’d type letters and eventually learned book design,” Matt said, and while he didn’t set out to become a children’s author, fate said otherwise. His 1992 book One Yellow Lion introduced kids to counting with a clever accordion fold format that ended with “You know us all, from one to ten–/ Can you count us up again?’’

While freelancing at Dial books (part of Penguin Books USA), now wife Mara showed a book prototype to the publisher at a staff meeting. “They signed it up on the spot,” she smiled. The former art director and book product developer at Reader’s Digest Children’s Books in Chappaqua now publishes with Simon & Schuster and grins.

“I love doing it.”

Answering the question, “What’s it like being part of a two-author family?” Matt jokingly pointed to the sunroom. “She works here, and I work there (on the other side of the house).”

Their older son Alex recently graduated college, “and his desk was across from my desk,” Matt said. “In the biggest room of the house,” Mara joked. Alex shared a creative room with his dad that once had a fully stocked aquarium that formerly housed a millipede, a Praying mantis, an African water frog, a bullfrog they raised from a tadpole and two or three kinds of chameleons –a throwback to Matt’s days as a biology student.

Younger son Ryan, a senior at Horace Greeley High School, shares a working space with his mom. Creative in his own way, he plans to study vocal performance and music education at college. Matt’s first book features Alex as a youngster on the back cover, and when Ryan was born he drew them both on the back cover of his books. “Now they’re always youngsters,” he joked.

As children their audience’s age, Matt and Mara read Maurice Sendak: Mara chose Where the Wild Things Are, and Matt read from his Nutshell Library and Martha Sanders’ book Alexander and the Magic Mouse.

Mara prefers oil pastels for their rich appearance noticeable in her favorite book Three Little Mermaids. Her grandmother was a fashion illustrator for The New York Times in the 1920s, and her mom, also a talented illustrator, used to draw her mermaids, she said. “My grandmother was a very talented artist, and her portfolio’s pretty cool. She inspired me.”

Mara Van Fleet signing books at the Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival
Until her most recent book Mama’s Pajamas, Mara’s books were created for girls and included fur, sequins, fabrics and other materials for kids to identify the sensation of touch.

Alphabet, a book which identifies several unusual animals for each letter of the alphabet, reflects Matt’s science background; in Dance, each animal was clothed or had a prop. His books may be too young for older kids, who are interested in moving parts and how they were assembled. “I have one that’s taken apart so they can see how the gears move and how it works,” he said.

“The process of creating our books is more difficult than creating a picture book, because of the interactive elements involved” he reflected. “For a counting book, the audience is always there, and in the picture book market, as kids get older, it becomes more difficult to write a book that will become popular. Each book has a theme,” he said: days of the week or opposites or colors; One Yellow Lion was followed by a book about shapes and then a 3D-shapes books. “This one’s a little different,” he said, pointing to Dance, composed by songwriter and friend Dave Bickler. Its main character, a little chick, learns to dance with help from animal friends, who move when kids pull cardboard tabs along the book’s edge.

Picking up DOG, he identified neighborhood and friends’ pets in the concept book of opposites. A mini-studio in their kitchen was where the canines struck adorable doggie poses.

“This was our pug Boris, this is Ryan’s pre-school teacher’s dog, this dog used to live over here, this dog still lives in Chappaqua, and this dog lives here.”

Their books, protected by acetate, can withstand kids tugging, pulling and touching. Some titles, like Mara’s mix-and-match The Very Mixed Up Princess – through which children can create more than 300 different sentences and lends itself to helping them learn sentence structure–are found in the Chappaqua Library.

Even though Matt’s initial two-book-per-year pace has decreased to one book annually, he admitted, “The first book is always exciting.” Both are working on new projects, and while privy to this information, The Inside Press will keep it under wraps for now. For more information, visit www.vanfleetbooks.com.

Matt and Mara Van Fleet will be attending and signing books at the Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival on October 14.

Filed Under: Cover Stories Tagged With: authors, books, Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival, Children's Book Authors, Family, Illustrators, Mara Van Fleet, Matt Van Fleet, Van Fleet, Work

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