National Book Festival Scheduled for Sat., Sept. 26

The Exquisite Corpse Adventure to Debut at the National Book Festival

Premiering at this year's National Book Festival on the mall in Washington, D.C., AND on the Library of Congress' new website www.read.gov is the riveting reading adventure--The Exquisite Corpse Adventure!

What in the world is The Exquisite Corpse Adventure, you may be asking? Well, according to Mary Brigid Barrett, Founder and Executive Director of the NCBLA, "The Exquisite Corpse Adventure is a buoyant, spontaneous experiment; a story game just like the one many families play on road trips, at camps, at parties, at home when there is a power outage. And just like in those games, characters spontaneously erupt out of one’s imagination; plots lines tumble forth, some realized, some lost; and we are often poised at the edge of a cliff with no logical solution in sight!"

Barrett conceived of The Exquisite Corpse Adventure when she was asked by John Cole at the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress for a reading outreach project to appear as a regular feature on the new www.read.gov website. Barrett suggested they "assemble a 'motley crew' of children’s book authors and illustrators to play the progressive story game," with the initial episode debuting at the National Book Festival and each subsequent episode to be posted on www.read.gov every two weeks after. The story will conclude at the 2010 National Book Festival.

A star-studded team including some of our country's most beloved writers and illustrators have enthusiastically agreed to donate their talents to this story adventure: M.T. Anderson, Natalie Babbitt, Calef Brown, Susan Cooper, Kate Di Camillo, Timothy Basil Ering, Nikki Grimes, Shannon Hale, Daniel Handler aka Lemony Snicket, Steven Kellogg, Gregory Maguire, Megan McDonald, Patricia and Fredrick McKissack, Linda Sue Park, Katherine Paterson, James Ransome, Jon Scieszka, and Chris Van Dusen.

The National Book Festival is free and open to the public!
Please join us for a special presentation at 10:00 AM in the Children's Pavilion to learn more about The Exquisite Corpse Adventure and hear National Children's Book Ambassador Jon Scieszka read the opening episode! Joining Scieszka on stage will be Mary Brigid Barrett, Kate Di Camillo, Nikki Grimes, Shannon Hale, Steven Kellogg, and Megan McDonald. All authors will also be making their own presentations and signing books at different times throughout the day. Click here for the schedule.

If you can't make it to the book festival, you can read all 27 episodes on www.read.gov/kids beginning September 26.

To make the most of this story adventure, the NCBLA and the Butler Children's Literature Center at Dominican University have joined forces to create a companion website with activities for homes, classrooms, and libraries; art appreciation information; educational support materials; and annotated lists of suggested books to read aloud or independently! Be sure to check out www.thenclba.org beginning September 26 to explore these additional resources.

And teachers take note! Reading Rockets is sponsoring a Prompt Response Writing Challenge inspired by The Exquisite Corpse Adventure. The challenge is an activity that gives K–12 students a chance each month (September through June) to flex their writing muscles with writing prompts, offered in connection with each of the 18 authors and illustrators participating in The Exquisite Corpse Adventure.