Exploring the Ups and Downs of Creating Early Chapter Book Series

Event date:
Saturday, May 30
Event time:
10:30am-11:30am
Location:
Berkeley Public Library, Mystery Room
Themes:
Booksales:
Eastwind Books, on the 2nd floor, right adjcent to the room
Access:
FREE

What is it like to work on early chapter book series? The award-winning writers and illustrator on this panel are here to tell us more! Donna Barba Higuera will introduce Don’t Eat the Birthday Boy!, the second book in her Unlikely Aventuras of Ramón and El Cucuy series, which takes place at Ramón’s monster-filled birthday party. The author of the thirteenth book in The Kids in Mrs. Z’s Class series, Mike Jung introduces Theo Chang, who must find a way to befriend his family’s newly adopted cat before they give up and take him back to the shelter in Theo Chang Is Not a Cat. Twirling in with another feline friend who wreaks havoc, The Princess in Black and its illustrator LeUyen Pham are back with The Princess in Black and the Kitty Catastrophe to share what it’s like to illustrate a series that has been in publication for over ten years. The fun never stops with the early chapter book series in this marvelous panel, moderated by Supervising Librarian Librarian Shani B!

Moderators:

Dan Alter

Dan Alter’s poems, reviews and translations have been published in journals including Field, Fourteen Hills, and Zyzzyva; his first collection My Little Book of Exiles won the 2022 Cowan Poetry Prize. A volume of translations Take a Breath, You’re Getting Excited, from the Hebrew of Yakir Ben-Moshe, was published by Ben Yehuda Press in September 2024, and Hills Full of Holes, a second collection of poems, by Fernwood Press in March 2025. He lives with his wife and daughter in Berkeley. He works at the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at UC Berkeley.

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