Francelia Butler Conference at Hollins University

We are very lucky to have a world-renowned children's literature conference take place right here on the Hollins campus every summer. Even better, it's organized and run by the students. This year's theme was THE MONSTER WITHIN and I'm proud to say that one of my students, Monica, won the t-shirt design competition this year. (I'm wearing it in a photo below.) Actually, all of my students made a good showing. Akiko won the Illustrator Spotlight slot and gave a great talk about her picture book exploration into foods that wrap and how they're made around the world. And my student Anna won the Ruth Sanderson Award! Meanwhile, this year's keynote was Dr. Amanda Firestone from The University of Tampa. She gave a great talk on the subject and tied it in with The Monster at the End of This Book. It and she were thoroughly enjoyable as you can tell by the photo I got of her. I had to do a silly photo too.Of course, the highlight of the conference is the handing over of The Margaret Wise Brown Prize for best children's literature text. This year's winner was KITTEN AND THE NIGHT WATCHMAN written by John Sullivan and illustrated by Taeeun Yoo. Our new program director, Lisa Fraustino, awarded the prize. Every year, I enjoy listening to the extremely well-done papers given by our students and guest speakers, while I draw my cards. After the conference, we have a banquet, which doubles as an end of semester faculty fall-apart party. (Here's my hubbie Stan and colleague Chip doing some damage.)All said, it's a wonderful affair and a real treat every year at Hollins.