Readers Theater at the National Book Festival

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at the National Book Festival?

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Katherine Paterson, Jon Scieszka, Lynda Johnson Robb

as Cowboy, Carol Rasco as Octopus, Susan Cooper, Grace Lin,

and Mary Brigid Barrett.

The National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance, in partnership with the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, gathered in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, September 22 to present a Children's "Literary Lights" Readers Theater presentation at the 13^th Annual National Book Festival. 

Our nation's first two National Ambassadors for Young People's

Literature: Katherine Paterson and Jon Scieszka.

The "Literary Lights" performance featured former National Ambassadors for Young People's Literature Katherine Paterson and Jon Scieszka, as well as award-winning authors Susan Cooper and Grace Lin. 

Susan Cooper, Mary Brigid Barrett, and Grace Lin.

The Readers Theater also featured—in costume—literacy champions Carol Rasco, President and CEO of Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), and Lynda Johnson Robb, a founding board member and Chairman Emeritus of RIF. NCBLA President and Executive Director Mary Brigid Barrett introduced the presentation, which was created for adults and children of all ages. 

Lynda Johnson Robb and Carol Rasco serve as masters of

ceremony costumed as the title characters in Jon Scieszka's

picture book Cowboy and Octopus. Costumes designed and
constructed by Elizabeth Barrett Groth.

Readers Theater is a dramatic presentation similar to a radio play. This special production was inspired by books written by each of the performing authors. Katherine Paterson wrote the scripts for Jon Scieszka’s Cowboy and Octopus (Viking Juvenile), Grace Lin’s Starry River of the Sky (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers), and her own A Stubborn Sweetness and Other Stories for the Christmas Season (Westminster John Know Press), incorporating the original text from the books. Susan Cooper wrote her own script for King of Shadows (Margaret K. McElderry Books). Robb and Rasco served as masters of ceremony, costumed as the title characters of Scieszka’s Cowboy and Octopus. 

To learn more about Readers Theater, visit the NCBLA's website.

An album of all our photographs is available on our Facebook page.

The Cowboy and Octopus costumes were designed and constructed by costume and set designer Elizabeth Barrett Groth. To see more of Elizabeth's work, visit ElizabethBarrettGroth.com

 

Be sure to check out all of our participating authors' books at your local library or bookstore!

Katherine Paterson, Jon Scieszka, Lynda Johnson Robb as Cowboy, Carol Rasco as Octopus,
Susan Cooper, Grace Lin, and Mary Brigid Barrett perform Readers Theater at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.