Take a page out of a longstanding literary tradition with this year’s Princeton Children’s Book Festival, a free Princeton Public Library event for authors and illustrators to meet young readers that returns to an outdoor, in-person format at the Albert E. Hinds Memorial Plaza adjacent to the Sands Library Building on Saturday, Oct. 7, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Children of all ages can once again convene under the tents to greet the guests, select a title of their choice for signing, and smile all the way to the registers with the knowledge that reading is not just powerful, but the greatest connector.
The day’s programming will go on whether rain or shine, as the almost 50 participating creatives and the region’s child-to-teen audiences gather for a literary paradise well-read in Princetonian tradition.
jaZams, an independent retailer of books, puzzles, toys, and more with a Princeton location at 25 Palmer Square East, will co-sponsor the festival and oversee all onsite sales as the book vendor. Both cash and credit are accepted at the plaza registers, while a share of the funds raised is set to go back to the Princeton Public Library as a donation for continued services.
If you have a young person who might prefer hands-on experiences, or possibly anyone just looking for a quick break from the book-oriented activities, the PPL will host a variety of arts and crafts opportunities from noon to 2 p.m. Library employees are also set to staff a table at the event to distribute information, such as festival maps, answer questions, and recommend titles specific to age groups or other criteria.
A full list of participating authors and illustrators set to attend the 2023 Princeton Children’s Book Festival can be found online at the event page on the PPL website, princetonlibrary.org/bookfestival.
For general program information and available services at PPL, call 609 924-9529 or visit princetonlibrary.org. Any additional inquiries about the event itself can be directed by email to bookfestival@princetonlibrary.org or Susan Conlon, the head of PPL’s youth services department, at sconlon@princetonlibrary.org.
The featured artist behind this year’s festival poster is Mika Song, an award-winning illustrator and the author of “Norma and Belly,” an early chapter graphic novel series with playful, punny food-related titles such as “Donut Feed the Squirrels” (2020), “Apple of My Pie” (2021), “Pizza My Heart” (2022), and “One Smart Cookie” (2023), all published by Random House Graphic.
According to Song’s website at mikasongdraws.com, “Norma and Belly” are based on a pair of real-life squirrels she spotted splitting a scavenged-for granola bar under the shade of a stroller in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene Park. These furry friends make an appearance in the festival’s promotional materials, eager to sign books with coffee-dipped footprints.
Song used to work in children’s educational animation and now resides in Queens, New York. While she is not based in Princeton, Song illustrated local children’s book author Anica Mrose Rissi’s “Love, Sophia on the Moon” (2020, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers), described as a story of “unconditional love” in a mother-daughter relationship.
Song will present an interactive story time in the PPL CoLab Space on the third floor of the library from 10:30 to 11 a.m. as a “prologue” to the festival.
Here is a list of the authors and/or illustrators from the greater Princeton area, some of whom are well-known repeat favorites of readers, as well as others whose attendance at the Princeton Children’s Book Festival marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter:
Anica Mrose Rissi
Book Pictured: “Wishing Season (2023)”
Anica Mrose Rissi writes across genres and mediums with the ease of a bow against her violin. In addition to the more than a dozen assorted picture, chapter, and middle grade books she has published, Rissi is a lyricist and fiddle player in the “electro-country” band Owen Lake and the Tragic Loves. Lake is an alias for Rissi’s husband, composer and instrument designer Jeffrey Snyder, the group’s frontman and director of electronic music at Princeton University.
But outside of music, Rissi is perhaps best known as the author of the “Anna, Banana” illustrated chapter books, a series tackling the nuances of early-age friendships. The most recent addition, “Anna, Banana, and the Magic Show Mix-Up” (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers), came out in 2019.
The Skillman resident was previously featured in a September 2017 Princeton Echo story by Dan Bauer alongside her late dog and writing companion Arugula, affectionately nicknamed “Rooga,” who served as the inspiration for Anna’s weiner dog, Banana. Although Arugula passed away in 2021, Rissi’s current dog, Sweet Potato, or “Tato,” keeps the food-themed name trend going.
“Wishing Season,” Rissi’s most recent book, is a middle grade story exploring “the enduring bond between twins” even when faced with the greatest loss. The Quill Tree Books publication focuses on a protagonist who must cope with grief after losing her beloved brother.
She has also branched out to young adult novels such as “Nobody Knows But You” (2020), a thriller set in a summer camp revolving around murder and friendship, but as told through letters. Rissi published a collection of short stories in the same vein as Alvin Schwartz’s “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark,” and her anthology, “Hide and Don’t Seek: And Other Very Scary Stories” (2021), serves as a fittingly frightful friend for the classic.
Rissi, a former editor for children’s book publishing giants like Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, and Harper Collins, is also an essayist with bylines in The Writer magazine and The New York Times.
More: anicarissi.com.
Patrick McDonnell
Book Pictured: “Heart to Heart: A Conversation on Love and Hope for Our Precious Planet (2023)”
Patrick McDonnell is the creator and illustrator behind the long-running “MUTTS” daily comic strip, which, since its debut in 1994, has been printed in “over 700 newspapers across 20 countries.” In just under 30 years, McDonnell has made more than 10,000 of them.
The heart of its success comes down to the characters — some humans but mostly animals — that convey McDonnell’s spirited advocacy for animal rights. The two initial (and most famous) pets are best friends Earl, a Jack Russell terrier, and Mooch, a tuxedo cat. McDonnell was encouraged to name Earl after his own dog at the time by friend and Peanuts’ author Charles M. Schulz, who also dubbed MUTTS “one of the best comics strips of all time.”
McDonnell, a freelance illustrator turned cartoonist, created last year’s Children’s Book Festival poster that features MUTTS tabby kitten Jules alongside Princeton University’s tiger mascot. He used MUTTS to express his views on animal welfare issues like shelter adoptions, but he has also broadened his horizons to other theoretical and conservatory subjects.
As a testament to McDonnell’s range, he worked with spiritual teacher and self-help book author Eckhart Tolle and even wrote a childhood biography of primatologist-anthropologist Dr. Jane Goodall, most famous for her studies of chimpanzees and work as an animal activist and environmentalist. “Me … Jane” (2011, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) portrays a young Goodall with her toy chimpanzee, Jubilee, featuring stories referenced in the famous conservationist’s autobiography.’’
“Heart to Heart: A Conversation on Love and Hope for Our Precious Planet” (2023, HarperOne) is uniquely co-authored by McDonnell and the 14th Dalai Lama, Tibetan spiritual leader Tenzin Gyatso. The literary graphic novel advocates for a “compassionate revolution” on climate change and our connections to the natural world.
“The Super Hero’s Journey,” the second book in the “Marvel Arts” line, came out on September 26 and takes a philosophical look at McDonnell’s own path in life, examining how these classic Marvel characters and cartoonists imbued a comforting positivity that has remained with the author ever since — a graphic novel “love letter” to the best of the brand featuring both new artwork alongside motivational quotes and iconic comic panels.
More: mutts.com/pages/about-patrick.
McDonnell is a festival regular with a fame that reaches far beyond Central New Jersey, but the “MUTTS” creator also has a familial tie to a newcomer on the scene whose debut book coincides with his first time at the PPL Children’s Book Festival.
“The Light Inside” was written and illustrated by his nephew, Dan Misdea, a freelance illustrator and contract cartoonist for the New Yorker whose own work taps into a similarly quirky sense of humor akin to the offbeat style employed by his uncle.
The new release came out in August under Penguin Workshop, a Penguin Random House publication aimed at young readers, and tells the story of a jack-o-lantern who must summon the courage to traverse a foreboding, dark forest to retrieve his favorite toy before night falls.
On his website, danmisdea.com, Misdea explained that while he originally pursued his interests in economics, accounting, and finance, his impetus for joining the industry has always traced back to when his uncle McDonnell let him tag along to the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Awards at just eight years old. This transformative experience of being surrounded by celebrity-status cartoonists — that year, McDonnell won the 1999 “Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year” honor — is what he has since returned to full-time.
Herman Parish
Book Pictured: “Amelia Bedelia Special Edition Holiday Chapter Book #3 (2022)”
The character “Amelia Bedelia,” a housekeeper known for her faithfulness to phrasing and loyalty to the literal applications of language, is another testament to the power of family. Peggy Parish, the original author and educator, started publishing in 1961 while working as a school teacher in Manhattan. Two years later, she released Bedelia’s eponymous first book and wrote to carry on the tradition of the stories she would create for her third grade students.
While Parish went on to release nearly a dozen “Amelia Bedelia” titles and 30 children’s books total, her unexpected death in 1988 put a pause on the character’s journey — a bookmark, a placeholder, but far from the final chapter.
Several years later, nephew Herman Parish continued the series in her memory. His first title, “Good Driving, Amelia Bedelia,” came out in 1995. Other books have since followed that focus not only on Amelia as an adult—and her job-related blunders of completing tasks to the letter—but also document the heartwarming hijinks of her childhood.
According to sources citing both Peggy and Herman Parish, Bedelia’s nature is an amalgamation of several figures throughout her life—Peggy’s recollections of a maid that worked for her grandparents, a dash of the author herself, and as a tribute to the matter-of-fact ways that young people might interpret such phrases. Bedelia follows every request verbatim, regardless of its euphemistic or idiomatic usage, but does so with an endearingly earnest devotion that tends to smooth over every occupational mishap.
The Amelia Bedelia books are published through Greenwillow Books, a children’s publishing imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. During the series’ 50th anniversary in 2013, HarperCollins claimed to have “sold more than 35 million copies” about the housekeeper.
More: ameliabedeliabooks.com/authors.
Margery Cuyler
Book Pictured: “The Little Fire Truck (2017)”
Margery Cuyler, a former editor and publishing executive, is a prolific Princeton author with more than 50 books to her name. Her third grade novel, “The Battlefield Ghost,” was published by Scholastic Press in 1999 and follows two siblings who move into a house haunted by the ghost of a Hessian soldier.
The idea came from Cuyler’s childhood growing up in the historic Princeton property known as “The Barracks” at 32 Edgehill Street, where the rumored apparition lingered long after the farmhouse was said to have been used as a military shelter during conflicts such as the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War.
As one of the oldest structures still standing, the 17th century home saw a revolving who’s-who of significant Princeton figures, owned at one point by Richard Stockton and housing guests such as Alexander Hamilton and James Madison.
Cuyler said to U.S. 1 News contributor E. E. Whiting in the October 2010 article “Ghosts & Company: No Full Moon Required” that she never had experiences with the spirit. “The Battlefield Ghost” went out of print in 2005, but Cuyler reissued the story in 2011 through CreateSpace, an Amazon-owned self-publishing service, with new illustrations by her sister, Juliana McIntyre.
Younger audiences can enjoy picture books like “The Little Fire Truck” (2017, Henry Holt & Company), a part of the “Little Vehicles” series — others including a dump truck and school bus — with illustrations by Bob Kolar. This one follows a firefighter and her trusty fire truck as they tackle the town’s flames. “Little Vehicles,” according to her Macmillan Publishers author biography, was inspired by her sons’ early affinities for everything related to “cars, trucks, and trains.”
More: margerycuyler.net.
Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen
Book Pictured: “Roxie Loves Adventure (2022)”
Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen discusses her journey as an unlikely writer in her Amazon author biography, noting that after graduating from the California Institute of Technology with a bachelor’s degree in biology in 1998, she moved briefly to Boston before returning to Caltech as a Ph.D. candidate in developmental biology. She paused her academic pursuits to raise two daughters and found herself enraptured by the joys of parenting, debuting her first published piece in a 2003 issue of the Highlights for Children magazine.
She then used her previous studies of life as a “springboard” for nonfiction works about science fair projects and experiments, history, and health, even penning biographies on everyone from Franklin Delano Roosevelt to — in another parallel to McDonnell — Jane Goodall.
Bardhan-Quallen’s first picture book, “Tightrope Poppy the High-Wire Pig” (2006), is a tale about an acrobatic circus-performer pig who learns the importance of trying again after a high-wire stunt goes haywire, with illustrations by Sarah Dillard.
Her love for animals can be seen in titles from “The Hog Prince” to “The Hampire,” as well as in series such as “Mermicorns” and “Purrmaids,” starring two different species of mermaid hybrids between unicorns and cats, respectively.
Bardhan-Quallen’s works have been read aloud by celebrities like Kristen Bell and Jennifer Garner. She has written about a Paleolithic protagonist who loves playing his own version of baseball, called “baseskull,” penned Disney and Pixar’s “Brave” (2012) tie-in chapter books starring Scottish princess Merida, and touched on “a celebration of girl power and community action” with “Chicks Rule!” (2019), a companion piece to “Chicks Rock!” (2021), both illustrated by Renée Kurilla under the publisher Abrams Books for Young Readers.
Her featured book is “Roxie Loves Adventure,” illustrated by Leeza Hernandez and published through Abrams Books for Young Readers, which centers on “a spoiled pug and her unexpected run-in with the great outdoors.” Roxie is inspired by Bardhan-Quallen’s own pampered “pug influencer” of the same name, who has nearly 13,000 followers on her Instagram page, instagram.com/foxyroxiethepug.
More: sudipta.com.
Maggie Edkins Willis
Book Pictured: “Smaller Sister” (2022)
Author-illustrator Maggie Edkins Willis’ debut middle grade graphic novel, “Smaller Sister,” was published in 2022 through Roaring Brook Press, an imprint of Macmillian. On her website, she described the work as emphasizing themes “about body image, confidence, and the everlasting bond of sisterhood.”
In a June 2022 interview on the blog KidLit411, Edkins Willis spoke about the book’s candid look at adolescent bonds and mental health challenges:
“Smaller Sister is a story of two sisters, Lucy and Olivia, who are close as kids but start to drift apart when they get a little older and Olivia develops an eating disorder. The story that follows is one about family, body image, and surrounding yourself with people who value you for who you are,” she said. “Like Olivia, my older sister dealt with an eating disorder while we were growing up. I struggled with how that illness changed both my relationship with her and my understanding of where I fit into my family, and it all had a big impact on how I saw my own body.”
“In those days, there were a few books that dealt with eating disorders, but most of them understandably focused on the person with the disease — I really wanted something that I could relate to as a sibling trying to make sense of it all,” Edkins Willis explained, striving to do so responsibly and with extreme care to the subject matter.
During that same conversation, Edkins Willis said she thought she needed to pick between her love of writing and drawing, an ultimatum that led her to study communication design at the University of Pennsylvania.
But after graduation, Edkins Willis came back around to the literary world at in-house design departments for major companies “Little, Brown Books for Young Readers” and “Penguin Young Readers.” She stayed in these art director roles for about seven years, where she was constantly reading in order to create covers. Eventually, Edkins Willis followed her passion and is now a full-time, freelance author-illustrator.
Her debut picture book, “Little Ghost Makes a Friend,” is expected to come out with Paula Wiseman Books and Simon & Schuster in 2024, while her second graphic novel, “Baby Steps,” is another Roaring Brook/Macmillian publication set for 2026.
More: maggiemadethis.com.
Peggy Parish's 'Amelia Bedelia' series, about a housekeeper who takes on every request at its most literal, was continued after the author's death by her nephew, Herman.,
Mika Song's poster features her characters from 'Norma and Belly' giving their best squirrel signatures, just like the authors and illustrators will do at the annual event.,
'Wishing Season' by Anica Mrose Rissi, published by Quill Tree Books.,
'Heart to Heart: A Conversation on Love and Hope for Our Precious Planet' is a collaboration between Patrick McDonnell and the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso.,
Mika Song illustrated Princeton author Anica Mrose Rissi's 'Love, Sophia on the Moon.',
Anica Mrose Rissi. (Photo by Kim Indresano),
