This week, Kate’s Book Bash honors author Kate Dopirak; Holly Black is the queen of the fall tour; YA authors had an “epic” panel; and Charlie Mylie has a gouda launch party.
Kate Dopirak Day
On December 8, authors, readers, and shoppers gathered at the Ace Hotel in Pittsburgh for Kate’s Kid Book Bash—A Holiday Marketplace, honoring the late picture book author Kate Dopirak, who died in 2018. Bill Peduto, the mayor of Pittsburgh, officially designated the day in her name. The event was organized by Dopirak’s friends from her local Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators chapter and featured more than 20 authors and illustrators, including Jonathan Auxier, Nick Courage, Sharon G. Flake, and Rachael Lippincott, who signed books and chatted with guests. The day also included books for sale by Riverstone Books, an illustrator’s workshop, storytime, and a silent auction of children’s book illustrations. Reading Is FUNdamental Pittsburgh was the beneficiary of the day’s proceeds.
Killer Queen
On December 6, Holly Black wrapped up her 10-city tour for Queen of Nothing (Little, Brown) at the Yorkdale Shopping Centre location of Indigo in Toronto. Black spoke to a packed room about her favorite types of characters to write, how she decided upon the book’s conclusion, and her experience hearing fans’ responses to the novel. The tour began on November 19 at An Unlikely Story in Plainville, Mass., continuing through bookstores in Illinois, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Texas, and Massachusetts, and the 92nd Street Y in New York City, before coming to a close in Toronto. Queen of Nothing is the finale of Black’s bestselling Folk of the Air trilogy, which features ambitious mortal Jude and her royal faerie lover Cardan.
An 'Epic' Event
Earlier this fall, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library hosted EpicFest 2019, an annual free literary festival, with the support of Wells Fargo, Read Charlotte, and other sponsors. The daylong event was held at ImaginOn: The Joe & Joan Martin Center in Charlotte, N.C. Pictured here (from l.): YA panelists Elizabeth Eulberg (Past Perfect Life, Bloomsbury), Tracey Baptiste (The Jumbie God’s Revenge, Algonquin) and co-authors Gilly Segal and Kimberly Jones (I’m Not Dying with You Tonight, Sourcebooks).
Quite a Mice Launch
Debut author-illustrator Charlie Mylie launched his picture book Something for You (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) on December 6. The “Party for You” event was held at the Rabbit hOle in Kansas City, Mo. Here, Mylie greets a young guest whose mouse face paint evokes Mylie’s protagonist. Something for You is a tale of friendship and giving.
