Mary Calletto Rife
30th Annual Children's Literature Seminar 

Featuring Steven Kellogg and Paul Zelinsky

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The Mary Calletto Rife Children’s Literature Seminar grew out of a yearly observance of Children’s Book Week at the Kalamazoo Public Library. Each year beginning in 1919, the third week in November is designated as the time to celebrate good books for children.

2007 marks the 30th anniversary of KPL's annual Children's Literature Seminar. This year's seminar features two award-winning children's book authors and illustrators, Steven Kellogg and Paul Zelinsky. Both Kellogg and Zelinsky have made significant contributions to the canon of children's literature in the past 30 years; their work is loved by children and respected by adults. Kellogg has created beloved characters, especially Pinkerton. Zelinsky's work ranges from the hilarious pop-up illustrations in The Wheels on the Bus to the painstakingly-researched Rapunzel.

Steven Kellogg says he has "loved picture books ever since I was a child. The illustrations of Beatrix Potter and N.C. Wyeth were early favorites, and I always found any kind of animal story irresistable." Steven's first book appeared in 1967; he now has more than one hundred to his credit, thirty of which were also written by him. Steven's many awards include Boston Globe/Horn Book awards in 1985 for Illustration of How Much Is a Million? and the 2006 Nonfiction Award for If You Decide to Go to the Moon, several ALA Notable Children's Book Awards, and the Catholic Library Association's Regina Medal honoring his body of work in 1989.

Paul Zelinsky drew compulsively from an early age, but did not know until college that this would be his career. As a Yale College sophomore he enrolled in a course on the history and practice of the picture book, co-taught by an English professor and Maurice Sendak. This experience inspired Paul to point himself in the direction of chidren's books; his first book appeared in 1978. Among many other awards and prizes, Paul received the 1998 Caldecott Medal for his illustrated retelling of Rapunzel, as well as Caldecott Honors for three of his books: Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin, and Swamp Angel.

Friday, November 9, 2007
9:00 am - 4:00 pm

Fetzer Center
Western Michigan University

Registration begins at 8:00 am

• $35, includes lunch
• students (with ID) $5 without lunch
• students (with ID) $15 with lunch

Registration required- call 553-7804.