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Instructors

Kathryn O. Galbraith

Galbraith's twelfth book for children and her first non-fiction picture book, Traveling Babies, was published in 2006. Boo, Bunny! (Harcourt), a Halloween picture book with illustrations by Jeff Mack, will be out in Fall, 2008. Two additional picture books are under contract: Planting the Wild Garden, and Arbor Day (Peach Tree Publishers). Her work ranges from middle-grade novels to short chapter books to picture books. Galbraith's picture book, Laura Charlotte, received a Parents' Choice Award and was selected as one of the "Best Books" by School Library Journal. Galbraith was awarded the 2007 UW Extension Teaching Excellence Award for Arts and Humanities.

Visit her website at kathrynogalbraith.com.

Brenda Z. Guiberson

Guiberson is an award-winning author and illustrator who has created books of fiction and nonfiction for children. Her picture books such as Cactus Hotel, Spoonbill Swamp, Into the Sea and The Emperor Lays an Egg have won numerous literary and scientific awards. Guiberson's illustrated books include Mud City: A Flamingo Story, and several chapter books including Mummy Mysteries, an ALA Kid's Pick. Her novel, Turtle People, was a Junior Library Guild selection. Her newest book, Ice Bears, illustrated by Ilya Spirin, will be available in fall 2008.

Visit her website at www.brendazguiberson.com.

Margaret H. Lippert

Lippert has written 22 children's books, including nine anthologies of folk tales and a collection of six Liberian folk tales entitled Why Leopard Has Spots, with co-author Won-Ldy Paye. Their picture book Head, Body, Legs was selected as the "2007 We Share a Story" book, and Mrs. Chicken and the Hungry Crocodile was a Charlotte Zolotow Honor Award Book. Their most recent book is The Talking Vegetables. In addition to numerous awards, her books have been performed by Book-It All Over Theater Company. Lippert was literature consultant for Macmillan/McGraw-Hill publishers for many years, and produced audio cassettes to accompany her read-aloud anthologies. She has taught extensively at the elementary and university levels.

Visit her website at www.storypower.net.

Guest Speakers

Autumn

Vijaya Khisty Bodach

Bodach is a scientist-turned-children’s author. She has published over fifty articles, stories and poems in Highlights for Children, Ladybug, Odyssey and many other children’s magazines. She has also written over thirty science books for young readers. Her latest book published by Macmillan/McGraw-Hill, How Do Toys Work?, engages middle-school children in physics in the best possible way—by playing. Vijaya’s series of books on Plant Parts and Graphing, both published by Capstone Press, have been praised by School Library Journal. She has also written numerous titles such as Simple Machines, Larger Than Life, Movement, for Perfection Learning. Vijaya also teaches the basic course at the Institute of Children’s Literature.

Visit her website at vijayabodach.com.

Laura McGee Kvasnosky

An author and illustrator, Kvasnosky has published fourteen books for young readers, including Really Truly Bingo, the adventures of an imaginative little girl and her talking dog. Laura is also the author-illustrator of a popular series of books about two young fox sisters, Zelda and Ivy. Zelda and Ivy: The Runaways was honored with the American Library Association's Theodor Seuss Geisel Beginning Reader Award in 2007, and Zelda and Ivy Keeping Secrets is on its way in 2009.

Visit her website at www.LMKBooks.com.

Margaret H. Lippert

Lippert has written 22 children's books, including nine anthologies of folk tales and a collection of six Liberian folk tales entitled Why Leopard Has Spots, with co-author Won-Ldy Paye. Their picture book Head, Body, Legs was selected as the "2007 We Share a Story" book, and Mrs. Chicken and the Hungry Crocodile was a Charlotte Zolotow Honor Award Book. Their most recent book is The Talking Vegetables. In addition to numerous awards, her books have been performed by Book-It All Over Theater Company. Lippert was literature consultant for Macmillan/McGraw-Hill publishers for many years, and produced audio cassettes to accompany her read-aloud anthologies. She has taught extensively at the elementary and university levels.

Visit her website at www.storypower.net.

George Shannon

George Shannon is the author of 38 books, including 27 picture books. His picture books range from concept books to poetry to original stories. He has also published books and essays on various aspects of children's literature. He is a frequent speaker at schools and conferences, both nationally and internationally.

Visit his website at www.georgeshannon.org.

Winter

Nancy White Carlstrom

Carlstrom is the founder and former owner of The Secret Garden Children’s Bookshop. In 1986, her first picture book, Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? was published. In 1987 she and her family moved to Fairbanks, Alaska, where they lived for the next 18 years. During that time, she published fifty other picture books, including Wild Wild Sunflower Child, Anna and Goodbye Geese (both NCTE Notables), Northern Lullaby (Publishers’ Weekly Book of the Year), Blow Me a Kiss, Miss Lilly (Children’s Choice and Parents’ Choice) and What Does the Sky Say? (Outdoor Book Award and Independent Booksellers’ Award). Now living in Seattle, Carlstrom continues to write and present programs in schools and libraries around the country.

Visit her website at www.nancywhitecarlstrom.com.

Brenda Z. Guiberson

Guiberson is an award-winning author and illustrator who has created books of fiction and nonfiction for children. Her picture books such as Cactus Hotel, Spoonbill Swamp, Into the Sea and The Emperor Lays an Egg have won numerous literary and scientific awards. Guiberson's illustrated books include Mud City: A Flamingo Story, and several chapter books including Mummy Mysteries, an ALA Kid's Pick. Her novel, Turtle People, was a Junior Library Guild selection. Her newest book, Ice Bears, illustrated by Ilya Spirin, will be available in fall 2008.

Nina Hess

Hess is a senior editor at Wizards of the Coast, where she helped to launch Mirrorstone, a children's book imprint of fantasy fiction. Before joining Wizards, Nina worked on children's books at McGraw-Hill and Harcourt Children's Books. She is a Writing for Children Certificate Program graduate and the author of Whose Feet? and the New York Times best-selling A Practical Guide to Monsters.

Kirby Larson

Larson went from history-phobe to history fanatic, thanks to a snippet of a story about her great-grandmother homesteading in eastern Montana. That bit of family lore inspired her to write Hattie Big Sky, a young adult historical novel, which has been selected as a 2007 Newbery Honor book, and earned the Montana Book Award, among others. Her other titles include The Magic Kerchief, an award-winning picture book, and several chapter books. Her most recent book, Two Bobbies: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship and Survival (Walker, August 2008), co-written with Mary Nethery, is a Junior Library Guild and Children's Book of the Month club selection. Larson is a frequent conference speaker and writing coach.

Visit her website at www.kirbylarson.com.

Spring

Julie Larios

Larios is the author of three books for children, including Have You Ever Done That? (Smithsonian Magazine's Outstanding Children's Books, 2001) and Yellow Elephant (a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book, 2006). A fourth book for children, Imaginary Menagerie, is due out in Spring, 2008. For five years, she was the poetry editor of The Cortland Review, and her poetry for adults has been published in The Atlantic, McSweeney's, Swink, The Threepenny Review, and others. She is the winner of an Academy of American Poets Prize and a Pushcart Prize for Poetry, and her work has been chosen twice for The Best American Poetry series. She currently teaches in the M.F.A.-Writing for Children Program at Vermont College.

Visit her blog at julielarios.blogspot.com.

Laini Taylor

Taylor is a writer and artist living in Portland, Oregon. Her first novel, Dreamdark: Blackbringer (Putnam), was published in 2007. The sequel, Dreamdark: Silksinger, will be out summer of 2009. She is also thrilled about the upcoming publication of Lips Touch (Arthur A. Levine books, fall 2009), a creepy, romantic, and sensual collection of supernatural stories about kissing. Laini lives with her husband, the illustrator Jim Di Bartolo, and her elderly canine step-son Leroy, in a bright yellow house filled with lots of books and marionettes and robots. They spend their time drinking coffee and making stuff up.

Visit her website at www.lainitaylor.com

Suzanne Williams

Williams is the author of more than two-dozen children's books, including the picture books, Library Lil, My Dog Never Says Please, and Ten Naughty Little Monkeys, and the chapter book series Fairy Blossoms and Princess Power, both published by HarperCollins. Her fifth series, Goddess Girls, will be co-authored with author/illustrator Joan Holub (to be published in 2010). She loves to share her passion for reading and writing with others, and is a firm believer that anyone can learn to write well. She holds a Masters in Library Science and a B.S. in Sociology from the University of Oregon, and worked as an elementary school librarian for over twenty years before becoming a full-time writer.

Visit her website at www.suzanne-williams.com.

Instructors and guest speakers are subject to change.