Speakers Announced for BEA 2016 Children’s Author Breakfast

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Jamie Lee Curtis, Golden Globe-winning actress and New York Times bestselling author, will be the Master of Ceremonies at this year’s BookExpo America Children’s Author Breakfast on Friday, May 13, at the McCormick Center in Chicago. Curtis will be joined on the panel by bestselling authors Sabaa Tahir, Gene Luen Yang, and Dav Pilkey, who will speak about their new books and the inspiration behind them. Tahir and Yang will also participate in BookCon, the consumer-facing extension of BEA taking place on May 14.

The announcement of this year’s Children’s Breakfast speakers was made by BEA show organizers on Thursday, December 17.

“Every year the Children’s Author Breakfast is one of the most-anticipated events on the BEA schedule and this year will be no different. We’ve lined up an accomplished panel of guests who will provide booksellers and industry professionals an intimate opportunity to hear from the most influential and diverse voices in the industry,” said BEA Event Director Steve Rosato.

The authors and featured books at the BEA Children’s Author Breakfast, which will take place in McCormick Place’s Special Events Hall on May 13 from 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., are:

  • Sabaa Tahir, author of An Ember in the Ashes and the forthcoming A Torch Against the Night (Razorbill, August 30)
  • Gene Luen Yang, author of American Born Chinese and the forthcoming Secret Coders: Secrets & Sequences (First Second Books)
  • Dav Pilkey, author of Captain Underpants and the forthcoming Dog Man (Scholastic)
  • Jamie Lee Curtis, author of This Is Me: A Story of Who We Are and Where We Came From (Workman, September 16) – Master of Ceremonies.

Registration for BEA, which runs from Wednesday, May 11, through Friday, May 13, opened in December. Register for BEA here; then reserve a room at the Drake Hotel, this year’s Hotel ABA, at the ABA member rate of $199 plus 16.4 percent tax per night (restrictions apply).

As in previous years, all ABA Regular Bookstore and Provisional members are eligible to receive free admission to the trade show and BEA conference sessions if they provide their ABA Membership ID number during the registration process.

Look for more updates about ABA programming at BEA in upcoming editions of BTW.