Sponsored by
The McConnell Center for the Study of Youth Literature
School of Library and Information Science
University of Kentucky

and
Book Wholesalers, Inc.

Dennis Carrigan has written a stirring tribute to Anne McConnell that expresses what so many of us feel. To read it, please click here.

The 2007 Conference

The 2007 McConnell Youth Literature Conference, In Celebration of Anne McConnell, will be held Friday evening and Saturday, March 2 & 3, at the Embassy Suites Hotel Lexington.

For registration information, please click here.

For program information, please click here.

Featured Speakers

Susan Campbell Bartoletti is one of the top non-fiction authors writing for youth today! Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow (Scholastic, 2005) was one of the most honored books of that year, receiving a total of six starred reviews. Awards include: 2006 Newbery Honor, 2006 Sibert Honor, 2006 Orbis Pictus Honor, 2005 Parents' Gold Choice Award, Publisher's Weekly Best Children's Books of the Year 2005, School Library Journal Best Books of the Year 2005, Hornbook Fanfare Books 2005, Booklist Editors' Choices 2005, and Best Books for Young Adults (BBYA) Top Ten. Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845 to 1850 (Houghton Mifflin, 2001) was the winner of many top awards including the American Library Association’s Robert F. Sibert Award for distinguished information book, the National Council of Teachers of English’s Orbis Pictus Award for distinguished nonfiction, and the Society of Children's Book Writers and illustrators’ Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction. In addition to her informational books for middle school and older readers, Susan Campbell Bartoletti has written numerous fiction novels and picture books for young readers.

Cari Best.When Cari Best was almost forty, she mailed away the manuscript for what would one day be Three Cheers for Catherine the Great! to fourteen different publishers. She received several encouraging letters. One was from Melanie Kroupa, who told her that the story about Cari Best’s Russian grandmother reminded her of her own grandmother, who was Czech. That letter started Cari Best off on her successful writing career! Three Cheers for Catherine the Great! was awarded a Charlotte Zolotow Honor Book award for picture book writing and was named an ALA Notable Children’s Book. Catherine, who emigrated from Russia as a young woman, stars in the story as a wise matriarch idolized by her granddaughter, Sara. The story continues in When Catherine the Great and I Were Eight! Both books are whimsically illustrated by Giselle Potter. Cari Best’s Are You Going to be Good? illustrated by G. Brian Karas, was named a 2005 New York Times Best Illustrated Book and her Sally Jean, the Bicycle Queen, illustrated by Christine Davenier, has recently been named a School Library Journal 2006 Best Book of the Year and a Parents’ Choice Gold Award. Other highly regarded books by Cari Best include Taxi! Taxi!, which won the 1995 Ezra Jack Keats New Writer’s Award, Goose’s Story, winner of the Henry Bergh Children’s Book Award for Fiction, and Shrinking Violet , named a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year in 2001.

Loren Long can no longer be introduced as an up-and-coming children’s book illustrator. He has arrived! On August 24, 2006, Jumpstart’s Read for the Record Campaign selected one book in an attempt to set the world record for the most number of people reading the same book on the same day. Loren Long’s The Little Engine That Could took the spotlight, having been selected for this honor. Watty Piper’s classic text had not been newly illustrated in 50 years! Loren Long courageously took up the challenge, winning raves along the way. Booklist said, “Grand in scale but cozy in effect, the impressive acrylic paintings use subtle strokes of rich colors to create a series of narrative scenes large enough to be clearly visible back to the last row of storytime or classroom… Chances are the unassuming Little Blue Engine never expected such a handsome showcase, even for her finest hour, but this edition provides a brilliant new setting that many readers will prefer to the original picture book.” Loren Long is coming home for this conference. He’s a UK grad!

Peter McCarty graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York City where he also teaches art classes. One of his instructors introduced him to Laura Godwin, a children’s book editor at Henry Holt and Company. She gave him his first professional art job: the illustration of a little science book, Frozen Man, written by David Getz. Laura was impressed and offered the illustration of the picture book, Night Driving written by John Coy. One drawing of a car going over a bridge made Peter’s girlfriend cry. She said, “Oh, you can draw.” They were then married in 1995. Little Bunny on the Move, published in 1999, was named a New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year. In 2003 Hondo and Fabian won a Caldecott Honor and garnered another Best Illustrated Book of the Year from the New York Times. Peter’s 2006 title, Moon Plane, has received starred reviews from School Library Journal and Booklist. Peter McCarty states, “As a storyteller, I am researching different ways of bringing the characters alive. I am looking forward to creating animation and different kinds of books for past and future characters. I need to get them out of my head”!

Sharon Grover is Head of Youth Services at the Hedberg Public Library in Janesville, Wisconsin. She has presented national workshops and written articles on selecting and using audiobooks in schools and public libraries. Formerly a Youth Services Supervisor and Collection Development Specialist at the Arlington (VA) Public Library, Sharon is a founding member and former editor of Capitol Choices, Noteworthy Books for Children, one of the only recommended lists to include audiobooks, and a long-time reviewer for AudioFile Magazine. She chaired YALSA's 2007 Selected Audiobooks for Young Adults Committee and is currently serving on the 2008 Odyssey Award Committee to select the first recipient of this new award honoring excellence in an audiobook produced for children or young adults.

Bonnie Kunzel presents lively programs to librarians, teachers, and readers on terrific books to read. A nationally known and highly sought after speaker, Bonnie Kunzel is acknowledged as an expert in science fiction and fantasy genres. Her books on the topic include First Contact (Scarecrow Press, 2001), a first foray into the world of science fiction and fantasy, and Strictly Science Fiction (Libraries Unlimited, 2002) co-authored with Diana Tixier Herald. Bonnie Kunzel is the Youth Services Consultant for the New Jersey State Library, a science fiction and fantasy editor for NoveList, a regular reviewer for VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates), a past-president of YALSA, and a YALSA Serving the Underserved trainer, presenting programs on library services and resources for young adults.

Susan Fichtelberg is the author of Encountering Enchantment:  A Guide to Speculative Fiction for Teens, published by Libraries Unlimited.  She also contributed to the Continuum Encyclopedia of Young Adult Literature.  In her nineteen years as a children’s librarian for the Woodbridge Public Library, Susan has served as the president of the Children’s Services Section of the New Jersey Library Association and chaired the Garden State Children’s Book Award Committee.  She has presented fantasy booktalks and programs for the New Jersey Library Association, the New Jersey Association of School Libraries, the New Jersey Education Association, The Witching Hour:  A Harry Potter Symposium, and the World Science Fiction Convention. 

Click here to download the conference poster.

Thanks for displaying this poster.
We appreciate your help!

Book Discussions

Additional conference sessions include Caldecott and Newbery/Printz Award discussions led by the SLIS graduate students from the Critical Analysis of Youth Literature course (LIS 611).

SLIS graduate student Laura Amos contacted John Green, who provided a entertaining video welcome to McConnell Conference attendees. Click on photo above to view.

Kentucky Treasures

Each year The McConnell Youth Literature Conference is graced by the presence of youth literature authors and illustrators who are from, have a major connection to, or who currently reside in, the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Their books are on sale at the conference bookstore and they will sign them during scheduled autograph signing events. This is your opportunity to meet them and thank them for their contributions to the Commonwealth. Those who have confirmed for 2007 include:

Paul Brett Johnson
Marcia Thornton Jones
George Shannon
Martha Bennett Stiles

Kentucky authors and illustrators are usually invited to participate in the conference and the signing of their books once they have created a body of work that has received positive national attention – positive (preferably starred) reviews in respected professional journals and/or national literary awards.

Exhibits

A traveling collection of books published within the past year is also made available to conference attendees in order that they might examine new books, thus aiding them in purchasing decisions for their own collections.

Conference Bookstore

Books by conference speakers and our Kentucky Treasure authors and illustrators will be available for purchase at the on-site conference bookstore. The Blue Marble Children's Bookstore will be providing this service. You are encoureaged to order your books in advance.

To pre-order your books click here

McConnell Conference attendees receive a 10% discount on all conference titles, whether ordered in advance or purchased on-site. Many thanks to The Blue Marble Bookstore for this generous discount!

A percentage of book sales will also be donated to the McConnell Center. Thank You Blue Marble!

Lodging

The official hotel of The McConnell Youth Literature Conference is the Embassy Suites Hotel Lexington. Conference rates are $119 per night, single or double. This rate includes a complimentary full buffet breakfast or a breakfast cooked to order and a happy hour in the evenings. Click here for a map.

Reserve a Room

McConnell Conference in the Press

Lilly appeared on front page of the Lexington Herald-Leader March 2, 2007 and also occupied the centerfold and complete cover of the Weekender section.

For the University of Kentucky press release of this event, please click here.

For the University of Kentucky Public Service Announcement of this event, Please click here.

For WUKY's Focus on UK announcement of this event, Please click here. Originally broadcast 2007 March 1

Arbuthnot Lecture

Please join us Sunday March 4 for the Arbuthnot Lecture.

People

Staff Bios

Sharon McQueen, Conference Director
Sharon McQueen is an Assistant Professor at the University of Kentucky, SLIS where she is also the Director of the McConnell Center for the Study of Youth Literature and Director of the annual McConnell Youth Literature Conference. She has taught youth literature, youth services, and public library courses for the graduate programs of The University of Wisconsin-Madison, UW-Milwaukee, and the University of Iowa. Sharon has been active at ALA for both ALSC and YALSA. In 2005-06 she served on the Carnegie Award Committee for Best Children's Video and on Michael Gorman's Presidential Library Education Initiative. Library Journal named her one of their Movers & Shakers in 2004 and her first book, In-House Bookbinding and Repair, was released by Scarecrow Press in 2005.
Sharon comes to librarianship having spent 15 years professionally in the theater as an actress, director and producer. During this time she toured nationally in many youth literature classics, including Charlotte's Web, Tom Sawyer, and Maurice Sendak's Really Rosie.

Mary Landrum, Conference Assistant Director
The McConnell Center, Graduate Assistant
Mary Landrum is a first-year student at the University of Kentucky, SLIS. She plans to become a youth services librarian upon receiving her MLIS. Several rewarding years as a library volunteer, and as the Toddler Story Hour coordinator at a local bookstore, encouraged Mary to pursue a career in youth librarianship. Her previous education includes a B.A. in English and French from Earlham College, and an M.A. in French Studies from New York University. Between those degrees, Mary taught English in a French high school for an academic year with the Fulbright Foundation's International Teaching Assistant Program. She is fluent in French, and is rapidly learning Spanish by working with Latino children at the Lexington Public Library's Village Branch.

Mary's office hours are:
Monday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Tuesday 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Wednesday 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
The McConnell Center phone number is: (859) 257-5797

Lousetta Carlson, Conference Information Officer
Administrative Assistant, SLIS
Carlson@uky.edu
(859) 257-8876

The Volunteer Committee
for the McConnell Youth Literature Conference

Tonya Head, Lexington Public Library, Central
Volunteer Committee Chair

Alice Beresford, Mason Public Library (Special Projects: Conference Technical Support)

Connie Burton, Brookside Elementary

Vanessa Flannery

Juliana Gaddis, Jessamine County Public Library

Jessica Holmes, Westridge Elementary School, Franklin County Library Media Specialist

Tracey Mania

Deanna Spears, BWI

Kathy C. Watson

Carolyn Vetter, Main Library Children's Services at the Louisville Free Public Library

Richard Douglas Wambold (Special Projects)