Kate DiCamillo to Speak at Children’s Institute on the Power of Books and Booksellers

Award-winning author Kate DiCamillo will present the opening keynote “Owning the Power of Stories, Harnessing the Power of Connection” on Wednesday morning, June 22, at the American Booksellers Association’s ABC Children’s Institute in Orlando, Florida.

DiCamillo is the 2016 National Summer Reading Champion for the Collaborative Summer Library Program and has served as the 2014–2015 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, an honor bestowed by the Library of Congress. She has won the Newbery Medal for The Tale of Despereaux and the Newbery Honor for Because of Winn-Dixie, as well as the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, the Theodor Geisel Medal for Bink & Gollie, and the Geisel Honor Medal for Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride (all Candlewick Press).

During her opening keynote at Ci4, DiCamillo said she hopes to convey the importance of booksellers, authors, and stories and how booksellers can harness the powerful influence they have in the lives of readers of all ages.

“I think that sometimes we forget how much it matters, and that’s what I want to do — remind everybody that what we do matters,” DiCamillo told Bookselling This Week.

Now living in Minneapolis, an area flush with independent bookstores, DiCamillo said she absolutely sees that sense of community and love for reading that bookstores have the power to create. “That was one of the big thrills for me when I moved here, that I could go 15 minutes in any direction and hit a bookstore,” she said, pointing to Micawber’s Books, Magers & Quinn Booksellers, Common Good Books, Red Balloon Bookshop, and Wild Rumpus.

Indie bookstores have been a part of DiCamillo’s life for years. She grew up in a small town in Florida that had a stationery store with a small selection of books, and another store about 40 minutes away had an even larger selection. “And I was lucky enough to have a mother who bought books for me,” DiCamillo said. But it wasn’t until she moved to Minneapolis that she realized just how many indies a city could support and how great the selection could be.

DiCamillo’s interest in children’s books began when she worked for a book distributor that served schools, libraries, and bookstores in the upper Midwest. “That was a fantastic experience because I was on the third floor, which was all kids’ books, and I got to talk to booksellers and librarians who came in to pick up and pick out their books,” she said. “It’s definitely why I write for kids.”

Later, DiCamillo worked for Half Price Books in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. Her favorite part of the job, she said, also happened to be the most frustrating, and it was a challenge she faced over and over.

“I would have a mother come in with this intense look in her eyes and hand me her battered copy of Louis Sachar’s Holes and say, ‘My son read this book and loved it. I need another book like this one,’” DiCamillo explained. “It was a tremendous amount of fun and also really challenging because I would always have to start by saying, ‘There isn’t another book like that one, but there are other books that I bet will keep him reading.’”

For these mothers, DiCamillo headed straight for the likes of Roald Dahl or shared The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. She also enjoyed guiding adult readers toward literary fiction by starting them with Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees. “And then people would come back and ask for more,” DiCamillo said. “And I loved that, I loved having people trust me as somebody to hand them books. It was a huge honor.”

It was DiCamillo’s mother, who passed away several years ago, who really supported her love for books. “I wish I had fully realized this when she was alive so I could have articulated it to her. I never really understood how much she paid attention to me as a reader. She would get me books and she would take me to the library and she would read to me,” DiCamillo said.

In second grade, DiCamillo fell in love with learning about Abraham Lincoln, but the books available to her were for much older readers. Her mother drove 40 minutes to a bookstore in Eustis, Florida, to special order a book on Lincoln for her, which she received alongside a copy of Cricket in Times Square by George Selden. “She got me what I needed and she paid attention to me, and it was a wonderful gift,” DiCamillo said.

As much as she loved books, DiCamillo didn’t dream about being a writer while growing up. “I loved and I still love reading — it’s one of the primary pleasures of my life — but I loved books so much that I just didn’t think human beings had anything to do with it,” she said. “I just didn’t see the person behind the book, so it never occurred to me that it was something you could do.”

Now a prolific, award-winning author, DiCamillo said her appointment as National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature for 2014–2015 was an incredibly powerful experience, one she will discuss during her keynote address. “It goes back to owning the power of what we do,” she said.

“I was so intimidated to step into that role. It seemed so huge to me. I still have that mindset of the person who was working for the book distributor, where I was when I sold Winn-Dixie. I had very realistic expectations about what would happen with a middle-grade novel. I would never have dared to dream this big. Stepping into that role of Ambassador meant I had to accept that what I do matters and, even more than that, that stories matter.”

DiCamillo’s newest book, Raymie Nightingale, will be published on April 12 by Candlewick. The novel highlights the growing friendship of three young girls — Raymie, Beverly, and Louisiana — in central Florida in 1975 as they prepare for the Little Miss Central Florida Tire pageant and navigate some difficult life moments. DiCamillo will sign copies of Raymie Nightingale during the Author Reception on June 22, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in Salon B/C/D Ballroom of the Wyndham Orlando Resort International.

The Children’s Institute Opening Keynote “Owning the Power of Stories, Harnessing the Power of Connection” will take place on Wednesday, June 22, from 7:45 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. in the Salon E Ballroom of the Wyndham Orlando Resort International. Learn more about Children’s Institute and register for the event here.