Ways to Get Involved: Conferences, CYBILS judging & KidLitCon

There are probably about a billion ways to connect with the community of people who support, love and promote children’s books.  Three ways that are happening soon include presenting at my state conference, volunteering to become a CYBILS judge for 2015 and attending KidLitCon in Baltimore, MD from October 9-10.
I’m so excited to be presenting (for the first time!) at my state’s library conference this fall.  I’ll be talking through my Fun Friday program and all the great ways to connect with elementary school kids in a quick and engaging way.  You’ll be hearing more about this as the conference gets closer.  I’m great at talking to bunches of kids, we’ll see how I do with a bunch of adults 🙂
Taken straight from the CYBILS website, “The Cybils Awards aims to recognize the children’s and young adult authors and illustrators whose books combine the highest literary merit and popular appeal. If some la-di-dah awards can be compared to brussels sprouts, and other, more populist ones to gummy bears, we’re thinking more like organic chicken nuggets. We’re yummy and nutritious.”  I love seeing the list that comes out every year and I always find a few things that I need to add to my TBR list.  I volunteered to be a judge and even if I don’t get selected, this is a great way to connect with other children’s literature bloggers.
This year’s theme for the KidLitCon is “Celebrating Young People’s Literature.”  It looks like its going to be a fun time and if I can rearrange my work schedule, I plan on heading down for this jam-packed, 2-day conference.  It’s a little bit of a small conference, which I’m really excited about, hopefully giving me a chance to get to know (personally) more children’s literature bloggers from around the country (and it doesn’t hurt that it’s so close to me!).