The second annual Whirlikids book festival is coming on Saturday, March 7th, 2020 from 10am – 4pm for readers at all levels, but especially for ages 3 and up. Featuring storytime, readings, book signings, panel discussions with authors and illustrators, crafts and more – it’s a day of book fun for all ages! Each week we are featuring a couple of the authors and illustrators that will be joining us for Whirlikids. This week: E.B. Goodale and Sue Soltis with two terrific picture book tales of independence and action.

Rounding out our Picture Book sessions with luminous and brave characters from bunnies to American heroes.

Hop along with Teetu the bunny, in New York Times bestselling author Beth Ferry’s latest, The Bold, Brave Bunny as he finds his way in this imaginative tale that reminds us that it’s splendid to see the world, but that it’s even more wonderful to go home, and share it with the ones you love. After his brothers and sisters ruin his favorite alphabet book, Teetu the bunny has had enough of his big bunny family! When he sneaks off into the night, what he discovers is more marvelous than he ever dreamed. Beth is the acclaimed author of ten picture books, including one of Fall 2019 favorites, The Scarecrow.

North Carolina’s own Shana Keller shares the story of Frederick Douglass in her latest, Bread for Words. Frederick Douglass knew where he was born but not when. As a young child, there were other questions, such as Why am I a slave? Answers to those questions might have eluded him but Douglass did know for certain that learning to read and to write would be the first step in his quest for freedom and his fight for equality. Told from first-person perspective, this picture-book biography draws from the real-life experiences of a young Frederick Douglass and his attempts to learn how to read and write.