Children's Literature Festival at the University of Central Missouri

11/04/2024

We are sad to report that Dan Gemeinhart is unable to join us after all. We are disappointed but hopeful that he can join us at a future festival!

Send a message to learn more

10/28/2024

📣We are excited to announce our presenters for !📣
Visit our website at https://clf.ucmo.edu/authors.html to see the list of the visiting presenters. Plus, don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter for all the latest info and announcements. We can't wait to see you back here in March 📖
Who are you most excited to see? 👀👀

10/22/2024

🎉 Want to hear from one of our 2025 Children's Literature Festival presenters before the festival?

Join Missouri Humanities for a FREE virtual event this Thursday, October 24, at 6:30 PM, and catch Pedro Martín (Mexikid: A Graphic Memoir), one of our CLF 2025 presenters! 🎊 He’ll be in conversation with Desideria Mesa (Bindle Punk Bruja), and moderated by Maria Vasquez Boyd, producer/host of Artspeak Radio.

Discover Pedro and Desideria's Missouri connections, behind-the-scenes insights into their work, and how their Hispanic heritage has shaped their storytelling.
An audience Q&A will follow—don’t miss out! 💬

Be part of the celebration! Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_7d_gpCWuTV-0sHsjnxuiYQ?fbclid=IwY2xjawGGPfZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHSbG-8zoQXKJ5qT1eS5DFecK7AVNCUeQCDFgqSUz9qTyNpT_U-b8lsJa_A_aem_a_crVhBDvWCTd_7JX6dQcQ #/registration

10/09/2024

We are so excited to be a part of the Heartland Book Fest this weekend in Kansas City! A big thank you to Missouri Humanities and the Kansas City Public Library for putting on this event and inviting us!
🎉 Stop by our table on Saturday to learn more about our mission to bring incredible children's authors and illustrators to Warrensburg (just a short drive away). We can't wait to share the joy of reading with book lovers of all ages! 📚

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