The 2013 Meltdown shall soon be upon us!
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| My better half and me. |
It's hard to believe that this March 30th will be the 5th year for The River's Music Meltdown and Book Bash. Or, as it's known for short—MELTDOWN! When my wife Gina and I moved to the Pioneer Valley, we knew we wanted to get involved with our new community and we wasted no time doing so. We always loved the events that I had attended for Punk Farm, where music was incorporated into readings, and saw a big hole in our author-saturated town of Northampton: NO book festival! We floated the idea for a day where authors and kids' musicians would swap stage time to our new friends Bill Childs and Monte Belmonte, DJs at the local radio station. Next thing you knew, we were teaming up and the first Meltdown was staged in 2009!
Since its inception, we have brought Grace Lin, Jon Scieszka, Jeanne Birdsall, Jeff Mack, Jef Czekaj, Diane deGroat, Mo Willems, Timothy Basil Ering, Anna Alter, Jane Yolen, Heidi Stemple, Scott Fischer, John Bemelmans Marciano, Eric Wight and Lisa Yee to the stage! We love that the kids in our neighborhood have had the opportunity to see all of these authors!
And now that we're in our 5th year, our oldest daughter is four and will truly enjoy this year's Meltdown! She was all of three months during the first staging of this event!
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| Our girls helped us make a display for our local library! |
Much credit needs to go to WRSI The River. They do all of the heavy lifting to make Meltdown something that can happen. There are a lot of finances that go behind an event like this and their hard work allows Gina and I to program the author side without worrying about permits, etc.
So who do we have line up this year? Here's who you will see on Saturday, March 30th!
Please note that Meltdown is moving this year! We've outgrown our previous space and will now be at Smith Vocational High School, located at 80 Locust St!
10:40 AM
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| This guy. |
We really had to pull some strings for this one. But seriously, we kind of did. My publisher will be releasing LL #9 a few weeks early exclusively for Meltdown 2013. So if you want to read LL and the Video Game Villain before the rest of the country, this is your chance!
11:40 am
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Angela DiTerlizzi! |
Our copy of Ang's Say What? is already dog-eared. We can never read it just once, as the girls insist on repeated readings. Which is fine by us, this book ROCKS!
12:40 pm
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| Matthew McElligott! |
Matthew's books are a huge hit with our girls. (Do you see a theme here? Our daughters seem to be running the show...) Even Aliens Need Snacks is a sequel to Matt's equally hilarious Even Monsters Need Haircuts.
1:40 pm
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Judy Schachner! |
Skippyjon Jones, everyone's favorite kitty-boy who thinks he's a Chihuahua, will be represented at Meltdown 2013! These books are crazy popular, and crazy fun, as is Judy! Our daughter runs around the house dressed as Skippyjon. Esta un cabeza de loco. My Spanish is rusty. I need to go read more Sippyjon Jones books...
2:40 pm
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| Tony DiTerlizzi |
But wait! There's more DiTerlizzi to be had! Tony's books range from picture books (G is for One Gzonk gets our girls giggling) to chapter books (T's new WandLa series will keep you at the edge of your seats and inspire your imaginations!). We can't wait to see what T will conjure up on the Meltdown stage!
Not only do all of these authors write superlative books, but they also put on fantastic shows. That's a big part of what we look for in Meltdown authors—stage presence! You'll never be disappointed by who we invite to read, they're all stahs!
And of course, Bill Childs has another fantastic line up of musicians. Be sure to check the official Meltdown page for more info! www.rivermeltdown.com
1 comment:
Thank you for a fun day at the Meltdown. You put on a great event with a fun and interesting lineup. Your books were new to us, and my son already finished the one we bought on the drive home. Now he's asking for more! Good work and thank you. We'll be back.
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