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Arts & Letters Live will kick off the summer in true BooksmART style with a day long festival featuring authors and illustrators who are loved by both children and their parents. The 2nd Annual Booksmart Festival took place on June 9, 2012 and included Taye Diggs and Shane W. Evans (Chocolate Me!), Jack Gantos (Dead End in Norvelt, Rotten Ralph series), Chris Raschka (A Ball For Daisy), Clete Barrett Smith (Aliens on Vacation), Eileen Christelow (Five Little Monkeys series), Jennifer and Matthew Holm(Babymouse and Squish series), Rebecca Stead (When You Reach Me), Meg Wolitzer (The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman), Deborah Hopkinson (Titanic: Voices from the Disaster), Daniel Kirk (Library Mouse series), and Jonah Winter (Just Behave, Pablo Picasso!). Author Alejandrina Drew (Abra Cadabra, Patas de Cabra) gave presentations in both English and Spanish. The day included  writing workshops, studio creations and workshops with Matthew Holm, Daniel Kirk, Chris Raschka, Raúl Colón, and Eileen Christelow, family tours, performances by Hugworks and presentations by the Dallas Theater Center.  Paper engineer Bruce Foster and artist Béatrice Coron conducted workshops at the Crow Collection of Asian Art.  Artist John Bramblitt and Mary Jordan led sketching in the galleries, and storytellers Tim Tingle and Ann Marie Newman shared stories throughout the day.  Dallas County Community College District was a generous community partner, providing each visitor with an orange BooksmART bookbag.  Essilor Vision Foundation completed 185 free vision screenings and provided 90 children with free eyeglasses.

 

Participants include:

Taye Diggs and Shane W. Evans, Jack Gantos, Chris Raschka, Eileen Christelow, Meg Wolitzer, Jennifer and Matthew Holm, Clete Barrett Smith, Rebecca Stead, Daniel Kirk, Raúl Colón, Deborah Hopkinson, Bruce Foster, Béatrice Coron, Jonah Winter, Alejandrina Drew, Tim Tingle, Ann Marie Newman, John Bramblitt, Mary Jordan, Hugworks, Dallas Theater Center, Essilor Vision Foundation