Children’s Institute Registration Filling Fast: Deadline March 7

Booksellers are encouraged to sign up now to secure a spot at this April’s ABC Children’s Institute in San Antonio, Texas. The all-day networking and educational event for children’s booksellers on Monday, April 7, kicks off with an opening plenary and reception on Sunday evening, April 6. Registration is open to booksellers at all ABA member stores, but there are a limited number of spaces left. Registration for the institute and for reservations at the ABA member rate at the host hotel, the DoubleTree by Hilton San Antonio Downtown Hotel, will close on March 7.

Children’s Institute programming will be capped by a closing reception with authors on Monday evening. The list of authors who will be there to greet booksellers and sign their latest titles is still growing, but here’s a look the participants to date:

• Jonathan Auxier, The Night Gardener (Abrams Books for Young Readers)
• Nancy J. Cavanaugh, Always Abigail (Sourcebooks)
• J.B. Cheaney, Somebody on This Bus Is Going to Be Famous (Sourcebooks)
• Megan Frazer Blakemore, The Spy Catcher of Maple Hill (Bloomsbury)
• Rohan Gavin, Knightley & Son (Bloomsbury)
• A.G. Howard, Splintered (Abrams Books for Young Readers)
• Oliver Jeffers, The Day the Crayons Quit (Penguin Young Readers Group)
• Steve Jenkins and Robin Page, Creature Features (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Nikki Loftin, The Sinister Sweetness of Splendid Academy (Penguin Young Readers Group)
• Aaron Reynolds, Here Comes Destructrosaurus (Chronicle Books)
• Don Tate, The Cart That Carried Martin (Charlesbridge)

The Children’s Institute will also showcase an impressive array of featured speakers, including:

• Opening plenary speaker Brad Meltzer, I Am Amelia Earhart and I Am Abraham Lincoln (Dial)
• Breakfast plenary speaker Tim Federle, Better Nate Than Ever and Five, Six, Seven, Nate! (Simon & Schuster for Young Readers)
• Chip Kidd, an award-winning graphic designer, a TED Talk speaker, and the author of Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design (Workman)
• Austin Kleon, a TED Talk speaker, a keynote speaker at the 2014 SXSW Interactive Festival, and the author of Steal Like an Artist and Show Your Work! (Workman)
• Anastasia McKenna, a bookseller at The Twig Book Shop in San Antonio, a professional children’s storyteller, and a 2013 TED Talk speaker

Visit the Children’s Institute’s author page to learn more about the author reception participants as well as about the featured speakers. More authors signing at the reception will be added to the page as they are confirmed.

The Texas Library Association will hold its annual conference in San Antonio on April 8 – 11, immediately following the Children’s Institute, and it has generously offered to extend its member rate of $25 for a week-long Exhibit Hall pass to all ABA members. The pass includes the TLA Grand Opening Reception on Tuesday, April 8, from 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. The reception will feature light refreshments, and a number of authors who will be signing and speaking throughout the conference will be in attendance.

The Exhibit Hall pass also includes admittance to the trade show, which runs from Wednesday through Friday, April 9 – 11, and will feature more than 270 exhibitors.  Bookselling This Week will have more information next week on how interested booksellers can register for a TLA Exhibit Hall pass.

Registration for the Children’s Institute is capped at three registrants per member business. The conference fee is $79 per person and is nonrefundable.

The DoubleTree by Hilton San Antonio Downtown Hotel is located at 502 West Cesar E. Chavez Blvd. in San Antonio. The ABA group rate, which is subject to availability, is $119 for singles and doubles from April 4 through April 11. Reservations must be made before March 7 and must be booked directly with the hotel. The DoubleTree by Hilton’s reservation number is (800) 560-7753, or rooms can be booked online through the hotel’s special CI reservation page. An ABA group code is required; see BookWeb’s Children’s Institute hotel information page for details.

Visit www.bookweb.org/ci2014 to learn more about the 2014 Children’s Institute or contact ABC Children’s Group Manager Matthew Zoni by e-mail or at (914) 406-7551.

The Children’s Institute is made possible by lead sponsor Baker & Taylor with additional support from publishers large and small.