On November 1, authors, illustrators, librarians, editors, and other professionals from across the field of children’s literature gathered for BookFest @ Bank Street. The annual event, hosted by the Bank Street Center for Children’s Literature in partnership with KidLit TV and Epic!, is dedicated to the celebration, discovery, and discussion of books for children and teens.
This year, the program featured a timely keynote presentation by Laurie Halse Anderson, the New York Times-bestselling author of many award-winning books and 2023 laureate of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Nationally recognized for her work to combat censorship, Anderson spoke about the rise of book banning across the nation and the importance of sharing stories and ensuring access to books for all young readers.
To begin her address, Anderson reflected on the power of storytelling and how books can help children and young adults navigate difficult experiences. “We instinctively use stories to help our children learn about the glories and the dangers of the world. We do that so they can thrive when they are young and prosper as they grow into adulthood,” she said. “Books are a natural extension of that traditional form of storytelling.”
Anderson spoke about her upbringing, noting that she grew up in an environment where certain topics were not discussed, both at home and at school. She shared how a traumatic personal experience informed her writing of the book Speak (1999), a novel about a high school freshman who withdraws into silence before finding the courage to speak up. While not a direct account of Anderson’s life, the book captures the emotional truths that shaped her perspective.
She noted that when the book was published, schools embraced it as a tool for starting conversations around difficult topics. Speak was widely adopted by educators, but it is now among the many frequently banned titles across the country.
“My book is just one of many great books in the last quarter century that have been written that have opened minds and unlocked hearts, that have helped children grow,” she said, noting the significant impact of banned books on millions of children and families each year. “When they remove our books, they are sowing the seeds of ignorance in our children.”
Anderson closed with an encouraging message for attendees: “If we keep sharing stories, if we keep sharing books, and if we keep demanding, insisting, requiring that everyone has the ability to share those stories and have access to them, then we’re going to be okay.”
Earlier in the day, Carlos Hernandez, author of Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, led a conversation with Sonia Manzano, creator of the award-winning Alma’s Way series, who is best known for playing Maria on Sesame Street. The Emmy Award-winning actress was also a writer of the beloved children’s television show for over four decades and is the author of several children’s and young adult books.
Their conversation explored moments from Manzano’s life and career, including stories shared in her memoir, Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx.
During the discussion, Manzano recalled reading Beverly Cleary’s Fifteen as a child and how she was able to connect with a character different from herself, emphasizing the importance of offering children a wide range of books: “We want to encourage kids to celebrate the fact that now there are indeed books in their own image, but there are also other books that are not exactly in their own image but that they might connect with on some other emotional level.”
The second panel featured a discussion with notable picture book authors and illustrators C.G. Esperanza, Winsome Bingham, Jason Griffin, Traci N. Todd, and Eric Velasquez. Moderated by highly acclaimed author Lesa Cline-Ransome, the conversation explored the theme, “Illuminating the American Experience,” which invited panelists to reflect on aspects of the American experience that emerged for them through the process of creating their books.
“A lot of the books that I’ve illustrated deal with the Civil Rights Movement,” said Velasquez, who has illustrated titles such as A Sweet Smell of Roses, a Civil Rights-era picture book about two children who join a march for freedom. “There are so many people who are not aware of American history, the true American history. It seems like people consume more of the fabricated history we get through television and film, and so the part of American history that I feel that I get to illuminate is the part that gets hidden away.”
Panelists also spoke about the storytellers who shaped their understanding of the American experience growing up, including authors, artists, and musicians, as well as their own families.
The final panel brought together award-winning authors Adam Gidwitz, Debbi Michiko Florence, Karina Yan Glaser, Mika Song, and Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich for an insightful conversation around the writing process of series books for young readers, moderated by celebrated author Emma Otheguy.
Rhuday-Perkovich explained one of the challenges of developing characters in series books is “maintaining consistency across books, but also being able to show a little bit of growth and change in ways that kids will understand and not feel disconnected…and being true to these characters as full dimensional human beings in a world that has a whole lot going on.”
To learn more about this year’s program, visit our BookFest @ Bank Street webpage