Bookapalooza to Feature Popular Authors, Award Winners

As Nina Krzysko walked around the shaded backyard of , she pointed to where the authors would speak, where the artwork would be posted and where activities would take place.

Bookapalooza will not be your average children’s reading experience.

“It’s a celebration of education and the arts,” said Krzysko, the Howard County Library's central branch manager. And it will also utilize the central library’s backyard, an area Krzysko has been yearning to use for summertime children’s events.

The event, which features some pretty big names in children’s literature, will also include drawing lessons, a PVC-pipe mister constructed by Boy Scouts and artwork of children’s book characters created by Wilde Lake high school art students.  It will be held on Saturday to correspond with Columbia’s celebration of the arts—, which is held at the Lakefront.

The headliner, Katherine Paterson, wrote Bridge to Terabithia, the children’s classic and 1978 Newbery Medal winner read in practically every fifth grade English class across the country. 

“I knew if she could attend then our event would stellar, so I held my breath,” said Barb Langridge, a primary organizer of Bookapalooza, about recruiting Paterson for the event. “They came back and said yes, she had written the event into her calendar and I about lost my mind.” 

Langridge and the central library children’s section staff have been preparing for the event for the past year, including a concerted fundraising effort with local businesses that allowed them to cover travel expenses for the authors to come to Columbia.

“What’s so awesome about this is that when children meet authors there is a connection that happens between them and it just makes reading and books come alive and be so important for kids,” said Langridge.

Paterson will be the first to speak among a group of authors who have all made an impact in children’s literature. Paterson will speak at 10:45 a.m. The event begins on Saturday, June 16, at Howard County Central Library at 10:30 a.m.

Other authors who also will be speaking and signing autographs include:

• Jerdine Nolen – 11:30 a.m. – author of Eliza’s Freedom Road, a story about a girl who uses the underground railroad to escape from 1854 Alexandria, VA.
• Jacqueline Jules – noon – author and librarian who wrote the Zapato Power children’s books. The books are about Freddie Ramos, a young boy who receives a pair of shoes that give him super speed. 
• Michael Buckley – 12:30 p.m. – author of the very popular Sisters Grimm and N.E.R.D.S. series 
• Pamela Duncan Edwards – 1 p.m. – Edwards has written amusing, colorfully illustrated books that include Clara Caterpillar, a book that teaches kids everyone is special, and Some Smug Slug, a tongue twisting story about a slug who gets stuck on a slope. 
• Rachel Renee Russell – 1:30 p.m. – Russell, a practicing attorney who considers herself to be a dork, is author of the The Dork Diaries.
• Tom Angleberger – 2 p.m. – Angleberger, an author who has Aperger’s, is a writer for the Roanoke Times who wrote The Strange Case of Origami Yoda in 2010 and its 2011 sequel Darth Paper Strikes Back.
• Mary Downing Hahn – 2:30 p.m. – Hahn writes ghost stories and mystery chapter books for children and teens, including The Old Willis Place and Wait til Helen Comes.
• Marc Tyler Nobleman – 3 p.m. – Nobleman has written non-fiction books about the creators of Superman and Batman. He also will be helping to teach kids how to draw a superhero.

Organizers have asked attendees to park at the Howard Hughes building and walk over to the event, as the Central Library’s lot has a small amount of space.