Children's Literature Festival at the University of Central Missouri

03/05/2024

With over 3,400 adults and students over two days, is a wrap! Thank you to everyone who travelled near and far to hear this year's presentations. We hope you learned something new, found great books, and met great people. 📖

03/01/2024

Mary Downing Hahn has moved from JCKL 1260 and will now be presenting virtually in the Union Auditorium, Building D.
If you are scheduled to see Mary, please check your email for the official update!

02/27/2024

With only 5 days until ! We wanted to welcome the final author on our lineup: Roseanne A. Brown! Her first novel, A Song of Wraiths and Ruin was an instant New York Times Bestseller, an Indie Bestseller, and received six starred reviews. Most recently, she has published the second book in the Serwa Boateng series: Serwa Boateng's Guide to Witchcraft and Mayhem!
She has also worked with Marvel, Star Wars, and Disney among other publishers and we are so excited to see her in 5 days!
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Want to learn more about Roseanne? Visit https://www.roseanneabrown.com/ and come see her at CLF 2024!

02/26/2024

You've got mail! 📨
We just sent out important information for the CLF Festival. Please keep an eye out!

02/26/2024

Who are you most looking forward to seeing? Drop a comment ⬇️👀

02/25/2024

It's the final countdown 🎶
We're 7 days away from our Sunday Luncheon and only 8 from the festival itself! We can't wait to see everyone and hear their stories. We'll see you soon!

02/23/2024

As we near the end of and the start of the 55th Children's Literature Festival, we'd like to conclude with where it first started: with 5 Missouri authors sharing their love of writing and reading with the children of Warrensburg!
We've come a long way since 1969 ❤️ we'll see you all in 9 days!

02/22/2024

Coming to the festival but curious about on-campus dining? Sodexo at University of Central Missouri has a lot of great options that will be open for the festival! Start planning now 🤤

02/20/2024

Please help us welcome NYT Bestselling author, Rory Power to our lineup! Rory is the author of YA novels Burn Our Bodies Down and Bestselling book, Wilder Girls! She also has an adult duology: The Wind-Up Garden.
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Want to meet Rory and hear more about her writing?
Register for the 2024 CLF March 4 & 5: https://clf.ucmo.edu/register.html

02/19/2024

Thank you to all who participated in our 2024 CLF Bookmark Contest! This year we had a record amount of entries (289) and our judge, Suzy Latare, manager of UCM's Office of Health Promotion definitely had her work cut out for her! She loved so many of the entries that she chose one winner and two honorable mentions from each grade. The six winners will have their printed designs at the 55th Children's Literature Festival in just a couple of weeks!
To find out who won, visit https://clf.ucmo.edu/bookmark-contest.html
All winners and honorable mentions have been notified.

02/14/2024

🩷🩷🩷
Happy Valentine's Day from UCM's CLF! Spend your day leading with your heart alongside Maritza in Maritza: Lead with Your Heart by Angela Cervantes!
Angela Cervantes is one of the award-winning authors we are so excited to hear from! She's written favorites such as Lety Out Loud (A 2020 Pura Belpré Honor Award Book); Me, Frida and the Secret of the Peacock Ring; and, most recently The Cursed Moon.
https://angelacervantes.com/

02/13/2024

We're so excited to have Niki Lenz joining us for ! Niki is local to Kansas City and teaches fourth grade! Her first novel, Bernice Buttman, Model Citizen made the 2020-2021 Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List and the Sunshine State Young Readers List for grades 3-5. Most recently, she released The Stepmom Shake-Up-- a novel filled with Parent Trap-like pranks and hilarity!
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Registration is STILL open, so register today! https://clf.ucmo.edu/register.html

02/09/2024

Every Friday leading up to CLF 2024 we'll be sharing flashbacks to past years' festivals! This comes from 1982!
Joan L. Nixon was the award-winning author of more than 140 historical fiction and mystery books including The Kidnapping of Christina Lattimore and The Other Side of Dark (which was made into a TV movie starring Tori Spelling and Michael Gross in 1995). She is also the only writer to have won four Edgar Allan Poe Awards for Juvenile Mysteries from the Mystery Writers of America!

02/08/2024

Only 4 more days to submit those bookmarks! 🖍️🖌️ We can't wait to see them all!
https://clf.ucmo.edu/bookmark-contest.html

02/06/2024

We're excited to announce that author and poet Janice Harrington is joining us for ! Her first children's picture book, Going North, won the Ezra Jack Keats Award from the New York Public Library in 2004. Her most recent children's books are the award-winning Buzzing with Questions: The Inquisitive Mind of Charles Henry Turner and Rooting for Plants. Both of which are NSTA/CBC Best Stem Books highlighting the first black entomologist and the black botanist and mycologist, Charles S. Parker, respectively.
Want to learn more about her work? Read up at https://janiceharrington.com/
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Registration is open and you won't want to miss hearing from this storyteller! https://clf.ucmo.edu/register.html

02/06/2024

UPDATE: This has been fixed!

Due to a campus wide issue, the CLF payment page is currently unavailable. Thank you for your patience!

02/02/2024

Every Friday leading up to CLF 2024 we'll be sharing flashbacks to past years' festivals! This comes from 1992!
Garth Williams was the illustrator of over 80 children's books. From Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web, to the fuzzy baby animals that populated a dozen of the Little Golden Books, Garth became known as the "illustrator of American childhood." Though he was 33 and relatively unknown when he got his start, his legacy of believing that his illustrations should "awaken something of importance ... humor, responsibility, respect for others, interest in the world at large!" has carried on through the modern day.
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A number of Garth's illustrated works can be found in the James C. Kirkpatrick Library's Special Collections. If you would like to learn more about Garth and his legacy, check out https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/garth-williams-illustrator-of-american-childhood

02/01/2024

⭐️February 1st marks the start of both National Library Lovers Month and Children's Author & Illustrator Week! ⭐️

Did you know that the Children’s Literature Festival began in 1969 when Philip Sadler, professor of children’s literature, and Ophelia Gilbert, laboratory school librarian, invited five Missouri authors to speak to local students? Since then, the Festival has continued to grow and is now the longest running children's literature festival in the United States that is geared toward children!
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What's your favorite festival memory? 💭

01/31/2024

📣Calling all CLF student artists: there's still time to enter our 2024 CLF Bookmark Contest📣
The deadline to submit your "Reading is My Superpower!" bookmark is February 12th!

🦸‍♀️ Want to learn more? Visit https://clf.ucmo.edu/bookmark-contest.html

01/30/2024

Wish for Spring with Dow Phumiruk, one of our author/illustrators! When she isn't working on books (or art), she can be found teaching medical students at Rocky Vista University College of Medicine. Dow is best known for her debut book, Hugsby (of which she wrote AND illustrated), and Mela and the Elephant. Most recently, she illustrated We'll Make Things Better Together by Mister G (Ben Gundersheimer) and Building a Dream How the Boys of Koh Panyee Became Champions by Darshana Khiani.
To learn more about Dow (or to find some Hugsby crafts) visit https://artbydow.myportfolio.com/more
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Registration is still open for our 2024 CLF! Register today https://clf.ucmo.edu/index.html

01/26/2024

Every Friday leading up to CLF 2024 we'll be sharing flashbacks to past years' festivals! This comes from 1973!
Rebecca Caudill was a Kentucky author of over 20 books including Tree of Freedom (Newbery Honor 1950) and A Pocketful of Cricket (Caldecott Honor). She was also the co-founder of the Champaign-Urbana Peace Council and created the hospitality program for international students at Wesleyan College during her lifetime.
In 1963, the University of Kentucky, Southeast Center honored her with a day named after her and the first community library in Harlan County, Kentucky adopted her name as well.
In 2014, Rebecca was posthumously inducted into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame as the first children's author to be included. Her legacy lives on through the Rebecca Caudill Young Reader's Book Award which allows grades 4-8 to vote for their favorite of twenty book nominees each year. Many of our CLF authors have been nominated for this award and some have even won it! We love seeing the connections made between our past, present, and future ❤️

01/24/2024

It's official: Daniel Nayeri is joining us for ! Daniel is the author of Michael L. Printz Award winning book Everything Sad is Untrue; Straw House Wood House Brick House Blow; and The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams which received a Newbery Honor on Monday!
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Blown away by Daniel's writing? Want to meet him?
Register for the 2024 CLF March 4 & 5: https://clf.ucmo.edu/register.html

01/23/2024

Happy Book Birthday to author, Crystal Allen! Her new book, Between Two Brothers released today and is inspired by real events. "Between Two Brothers is a powerful and uplifting story about forgiveness, brotherhood, and the power of a family’s unconditional love."
We're excited to hear about this new book and her other works during our Children's Literature Festival March 4th and 5th!
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Registration is still open and spots are going quick! Register today https://clf.ucmo.edu/register.html

01/22/2024

Congratulations to 2024 CLF presenter Daniel Nayeri for receiving a Newbery Honor today for The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams!

01/19/2024

Every Friday leading up to CLF 2024 we'll be sharing flashbacks to past years' festivals! This comes from 1984!
Featured in this photo is Rhoda Wooldridge, one of the original CLF authors! Rhoda was the author of many historical novels (often set in Missouri) and was nominated for the 1983 Mark Twain Award for Hannah's Flood. Throughout her life, she was a frequent visitor of CLF, presenting 17 times. A collection of her correspondences and articles are held in the James C. Kirkpatrick Library Special Collections.

01/17/2024

Thank you to everyone who registered today! This afternoon we paused registration to make some corrections and add some clarifying language to our new form. Registration is open again! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out and thanks again for all your support.

01/17/2024

Registration has been temporarily paused while we figure out some software issues! We'll let you know when it is back open.
Thank you for your patience!

01/17/2024

It's finally time!
Registration is officially open. This year, it may look a little different, so please read the instructions on each page carefully!
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Link to register in bio.

01/17/2024

Registration is now open!

For the best schedule, please arrange to spend the entire day at the festival, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. This year registrants will self-select their schedules instead of being assigned presenters based on preferences. Attendee numbers must be finalized by February 7.