Laura Bush, Jenna Bush to Meet Book-Lovers at Eighth Annual National Book Festival; Young Readers' Toolkit Available

The 2008 National Book Festival, hosted by the Library of Congress and First Lady Laura Bush, will feature co-authors Mrs. Bush and her daughter, Jenna Bush, on the National Mall Sept. 27; young readers can get ready for the festival using a new toolkit online; new authors and special guests join the lineup.

Washington, DC (PRWEB) September 9, 2008 -- First Lady Laura Bush and her daughter, Jenna Bush, co-authors of the book "Read All About It!" will join the authors and special guests presenting at the 2008 National Book Festival (http://www.loc.gov/bookfest), organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress and Mrs. Bush. The festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 27, rain or shine, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., between 3rd and 7th streets. The festival is free and open to the public.

Special Note: The Library has created a Web site for members of the media to download background materials, high-resolution images, video and audio sound bites, b-roll and other audiovisual resources, as well as to request interviews with participating authors. This information can be accessed via the Press Registration (http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/registration.php) link. This release will be updated periodically.

Today the Library also is launching its National Book Festival Young Readers' Online Toolkit (http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/2008/toolkit/), which will bring the festival into libraries, schools, and homes from coast to coast. The toolkit offers information about National Book Festival authors who write for children and teens, and offers podcasts of their readings along with teaching tools and activities for children. With the toolkit, teachers, parents and kids can put together their own book festivals.

The online toolkit features a Hosting Guide which provides an overview of the site and ideas for holding local book festivals; an Author Details section including biographies and a "scoop" area that tells the stories behind their stories; and the 2008 National Book Festival Poster (http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/2008/poster.html).

Among more than 70 authors and illustrators participating in the National Book Festival this year are Tiki Barber, Marc Brown, Warren Brown, Kimberly Dozier, Arthur Frommer and Pauline Frommer, Philippa Gregory, Steven Kellogg, Brad Meltzer, Salman Rushdie, Bob Schieffer, Daniel Schorr, Alexander McCall Smith, Paul Theroux and Dionne Warwick. Jon Scieszka, a children's book author recently named the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature (http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/2008/authors/Scieszka.html) by the Librarian of Congress, will be among the authors presenting in the Teens & Children's Pavilion.

The festival authors, illustrators and poets will discuss their work in pavilions dedicated to Children, Teens & Children, Fiction & Mystery, History & Biography, Home & Family and Poetry. PBS characters and NBA/WNBA players will appear at the festival including NBA Legend and Hall of Famer Bob Lanier and players Chris Duhon and Ivory Latta. Each year, players participate in the festival by reading their favorite children's books aloud with the help of students from local area schools as part of "NBA Cares."

The Pavilion of the States, sponsored by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, will highlight reading, literacy and library promotion activities in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and several American trusts and territories.

The Library of Congress Pavilion will feature a variety of family-centered activities illustrating the depth and breadth of the Library's extraordinary collections available online. It will also offer a sampling of interactive activities available through the recently launched Library of Congress Experience (http://www.loc.gov/experience/).

Presentations by young poets and artists will be a new feature in the Teens & Children Pavilion. Each of the K-12 students presenting will be a winner in the River of Words (www.riverofwords.org) environmental poetry and art contest sponsored by the Library's Center for the Book.

A presentation by four of the more than 100 authors and illustrators who contributed to the volume "Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out," sponsored by the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance, will be featured in the Teens & Children Pavilion. Those writers are Mary Brigid Barrett, Steven Kellogg, Katherine Paterson and Jon Scieszka. (The book, with an introduction written by David McCullough, is published by Candlewick Press, 2008.)

Downloadable podcasts (http://www.loc.gov/podcasts/) of interviews with popular participating authors will be placed on the Library's Web site. In addition, festival sponsor The Washington Post will make online discussions with National Book Festival authors available on its Web site, washingtonpost.com, from Sept. 15 through Sept. 26. These will begin with CBS newsman and author Bob Schieffer on Monday, Sept. 15 at 2 p.m. EDT; noted travel writers Arthur and Pauline Frommer, on Tuesday, Sept. 16 at 10 a.m. EDT; and fiction/nonfiction writer Alexander McCall Smith, on Friday, Sept. 19 at 11 a.m. EDT.

The artist for this year's festival is beloved children's author and illustrator Jan Brett, whose poster of animals and birds on the National Mall will be available at the festival. Brett, who has written and/or illustrated more than 30 books and has more than 33 million books in print, will be among the authors and illustrators speaking in the Children's Pavilion.

The 2008 National Book Festival is made possible with generous support from Distinguished Benefactor Target; Charter Sponsors AT&T and The Washington Post; Patrons the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the James Madison Council and the National Endowment for the Arts; and Contributors Barnes & Noble, the Kalima Foundation, the Library of Congress Federal Credit Union, Marshall and Dee Ann Payne, NBA/WNBA, PBS, Penguin Group (USA), Scholastic Inc. and US Airways.

The Junior League of Washington will again provide hundreds of volunteers, joining Library of Congress volunteers, in assisting those attending the National Book Festival.

Participating Authors - National Book Festival 2008

The latest list of participating authors, illustrators and poets, their books and activities in each presentation pavilion follows. For more information about them and the festival, visit www.loc.gov/bookfest.

Children

Tiki Barber

Jan Brett

Marc Brown & Judy Sierra

David A. Carter

Doreen Cronin & Betsy Lewin

Kadir Nelson & Doreen Rappaport

David Shannon

Dionne Warwick

Teens & Children

Mary Brigid Barrett, Steven Kellogg & Katherine Paterson

Joseph Bruchac

Sharon M. Draper

Neil Gaiman

Andrea Davis Pinkney

Matthew Reinhart & Robert Sabuda

River of Words with Pamela Michael, David

Gewanter, and young contest winners

Jon Scieszka

Charles R. Smith, Jr.

R. L. Stine

Judith Viorst

Fiction & Mystery

Louis Bayard

Geraldine Brooks

Sandra Brown

Marisa de Los Santos

Philippa Gregory

Andrew Klavan

James McBride

Brad Meltzer

Richard Price

Francine Prose

Peter Robinson

Salman Rushdie

Alexander McCall Smith

History & Biography

Rick Atkinson

Michael Dobbs

Kimberly Dozier

Tony Horwitz

Kay Bailey Hutchison

Immaculèe Ilibagiza

Walter Isaacson

David Maraniss

Cokie Roberts

Bob Schieffer

Daniel Schorr

Paul Theroux

Gordon S. Wood

Home & Family

Warren Brown

Marcus Buckingham

Eleanor Clift

George Duran

Arthur Frommer & Pauline Frommer

Julie Morgenstern

Mike Richman

Nancy Schulman & Ellen Birnbaum

Cathy Scott

Michelle Singletary

Poets

Eavan Boland

Dan Chiasson

Elsa Cross

Michael S. Harper

Michael Lind

Molly Peacock

Stanley Plumly

J. Allyn Rosser

Kay Ryan (Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, Library of Congress)

Poetry Out Loud

Special Guests

Chris Duhon

Bob Lanier

Ivory Latta

PR 08-145

09/08/08

ISSN 0731-3527

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