April 4, 2005
Jazzy Cats, a Giant Carrot and Memories of Kite Making …Fifth Annual
Children’s Book Festival Highlighting Some of Little One’s Favorite
Texas Authors on April 15
Annual event designed to encourage children and parents to read together
On Friday, April 15, Del Mar College expects over 1,600 little ones from area
childcare centers to gleefully move from tent to tent to hear stories read by
three Texas authors of children’s books. From jazz cats, redneck babies
and adventures under the deep blue sea to a giant carrot and a child making
her first kite from comic strips, bamboo and string, the Fifth Annual Children’s
Book Festival on the College’s East Campus will give children a chance
to meet those three authors–David Davis, Jan Peck and Lupe Ruiz-Flores.
The free event is also open to the public and runs from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. in
the grassy area in front of the College’s White Library on the East Campus,
Baldwin and Ayers. In the event of rain, the festival will move to the DMC Gymnasium.
Sponsored by the Corpus Christi Public Libraries and Del Mar College. For further
information, call 698-1317.
Supplementary activities on Thursday, April 14, include a lecture, “Books
– Alive and Kicking,” by Davis and Peck from 9:30 to 11 a.m. in Warren
Theater at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and a book signing reception
from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Corpus Christi Central Library at 805 Comanche
Street.
Each year, the festival features Texas-based authors of favorite children’s
books. After hearing the authors, all children attending the event can select
a free book and create a science/art project based on what they’ve heard.
Additionally, organizers will have books by Davis, Peck and Ruiz-Flores available
for purchase during the festival.
During this year’s Children’s Book Festival, little ones will come
face-to-face with:
• Having grown up in Texas and currently residing in Fort Worth, David
Davis knows his fair share about rednecks and truckers, so naturally,
his books Redneck Night Before Christmas and Trucker’s Night
Before Christmas strike a chord with readers for their accurate but humorous
look at Christmas Eve at a trailer park or truck stop. He has established himself
as a writer of humor that appeals to both children and adults. His book Jazz
Cats, which tells about the escapades of some cool cats that know how to
entertain, was a 2002 International Reading Association/Children’s Book
Council Children’s Choices selection.
The most recent in Davis’ redneck series is Ten Redneck Babies: A Southern
Counting Book, which children attending the festival will delight in counting
moon pies, magnolias, kudzu and catfish as Davis reads the adventures of ten
little redneck babies from down South. Davis’ poems, short stories, articles
and cartoons have appeared in varied publications, including Back Porch Magazine,
Comics Buyers Guide, Bureaucrat Magazine, Satire Magazine
and Vermont Ink. The author studied fine arts at Stephen F. Austin University
and has contributed pen-and-ink artwork and cartoons to issues of Back Porch
Magazine and Madison County Journal. In 1996, those efforts earned
Davis an award from the Mississippi Press Association for his political cartoons.
He is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
•Jan Peck brings color, excitement and a little exaggeration
to her writing. In addition to her books, Way Down Deep in the Deep Blue
Sea and The Giant Carrot, Peck has served as editor for Boys’
Life magazine. Additionally, her stories have appeared in Highlights
for Children, Humpty Dumpty and Turtle magazines. In 1998,
her story “Perfect Dog” was published in the best-selling book Chicken
Soup for the Kid’s Soul. Among Peck’s credits, she has also earned
several awards, including the Kentucky Bluegrass Award 1999 Master List and
the 2000-2001 Arkansas Diamond Award Master List. Peck is a member of the Society
of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and the past Regional Advisor
and President for the North Central/Northeast Texas Chapter.
Next Friday, little ones will hear about a young boy who goes in search of treasure
“way down deep in the deep blue sea” and encounters fantastic and
wondrous creatures of the sea. Peck, an organic gardener and former cook for
Auntie Em’s, a vegetarian/health-food restaurant in Cowtown, also has plenty
of experience with giant carrots. Her reading selection includes the two children’s
favorites, Way Down Deep in the Deep Blue Sea and The Giant Carrot.
Other books Peck has written include The Ballerina Princess, The First
Christmas and The Time Travelers.
• Lupe Ruiz-Flores’ bilingual book Lupita’s
Papalote/El Papalote de Lupita launches a new voice in children’s books.
The author remembers the time when her father helped her make her first kite
and the thrilling experience of letting the papalote fly. A native of San Antonio,
Ruiz-Flores also enjoys writing poetry. Some of her work has been published
in The San Antonio Express-News; Voices Along the River, anthologies
that were part of the 1999 and 2000 San Antonio Poetry Fair; as well as the
Fall/Winter 1999 and Spring/Summer 2000 issues of Borderlands: Texas Poetry
Review. Ruiz-Flores is also a member of the Society of Children’s Book
Writers and Illustrators.
-DMC-me