Three 'Newbery-ettes" Take the Stage in St. Paul

By Claire Kirch, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 10/18/2007

This past Sunday, three bestselling children’s book authors, all of them Newbery Medal recipients, who dubbed themselves “The Newbery-ettes,” read dramatized selections from each other’s works to a standing-room-only audience of 1100 people at St. Paul’s famed Fitzgerald Theatre, where Garrison Keillor broadcasts his popular Prairie Home Companion radio program.

Minnesota Public Radio personality Cathy Wurtzer hosted the sold-out Readers Theatre performance by Kate DiCamillo, Sharon Creech and Katherine Paterson. A fourth author, Karen Hesse, was taken ill earlier that weekend, and was unable to perform. Fortunately, HarperCollins editors Joanna Cotler and Jill Santopolo had attended several rehearsals and were able to take turns filling in for the ailing Hesse.

Newbery Medalists Kate DiCamillo, Sharon Creech and
Katherine Paterson, on stage in St. Paul.
Photo: Stephanie Colgan

The three authors and two editors performed two selections from each author’s work: Creech’s Walk Two Moons and Castle Corona; DiCamillo’s The Tale of Despereaux and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane; Hesse’s Out of the Dust and the yet-to-be-released Spuds; and Paterson’s Jacob Have I Loved and Bread and Roses, Too.

Eager audience members lined up outside the theatre on a rainy and chilly Minnesota afternoon two hours ahead before curtain time. Amy Baum, events coordinator at the Red Balloon Bookshop, reported that the performance lasted for almost two and a half hours, “but nobody left.”

Baum also reported that book sales, which were handled by the Red Balloon, were “brisk,” with more than 600 books sold.

“The lines for the signings afterward were the longest that the theatre staff had ever seen—and that’s going back 15 years,” Christina Schmitt, the Fitzgerald Theatre’s communications specialist, said.

DiCamillo.

The next morning, when PW spoke with a still-exuberant DiCamillo, she celebrated the fact that she, who had once toiled in obscurity as a bookseller while trying to jumpstart her writing career, was included in the lineup of high-powered Newbery winners.

“I was grateful to be there and to be on stage with those ladies. I read [their] books; that’s how I learned to write children’s books,” she said, “To be on a stage with them was incredible, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

For her part, Creech, who first suggested the collaborative event, insisted that performing with her co-authors was the best part of the experience, though performing on the same stage Keillor treads each week also moved her. “We don’t get much opportunity to be with our colleagues,” she said, “When we’re [appearing] with other authors, it’s so much fun.”

“It’s one of those milestones,” Creech added. “It’s one of the most fun things I’ve ever done.”

The first half of Sunday's program, which aired on Minnesota Public Radio this past Wednesday, can be heard on MPR's Web site by clicking on "Listen to program." The second half will be aired at a later date.

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