An Inspirational and Sensational Youth Literacy Event!

The Room to Write's annual Young Writers and Illustrators Meet, Greet, & Create! felt like a beehive filled with everything that could possibly inspire a young person to want to be curious, experiment, and create. 

There were words being typed, pictures being glittered, acorns with eyes, animals to draw, rocks to dig deeper into, field journals, a graphic arts portfolio to amaze, and a master class in character illustration. All in one really fun space provided by the Boys & Girls Club of Metro North's Saugus Teen Center "The Club" location inside the Square One Mall. What a bright and beautiful space!

Tuesday, March 25th, seemed like an ordinary weekday night, but if you happen to be at The Club or strolling through the mall, there was something much more extraordinary to discover: 13 local authors (which included 3 author/illustrators), 1 local kids art organization: Kidcasso, tons-o-snacks, 100+ free books to give away to kids ages toddler (babies, too:) to teen, notebooks to write your own story in, bookmarks, so many fun activities and a wonderful group of volunteers and staff from The Club who made everybody feel so welcome. 

Shout out to our volunteers: Laura-Marie, George, Emily, Ellen, Kerri and Lisa--and to the amazing BGC Staff: Casey, Patrick, Daved, Aiden and JW. 

For any kids who wanted to read a few other books from the event or who want to go on to read every single book from the event--they can! We'll be donating copies of book to the Wakefield Public Library and since they are part of the NOBLE Network of libraries, the books are available to any town library in the system. What books were there, you ask? 

Participating authors and illustrators represented 20 different titles ranging in genres from picture books and young readers/chapter books to middle grade novels, a young adult novel and graphic novels. Participating authors are: 
Picture Books: Lisa Perron (All the Rocks We Love), Andrew Hacket (Ollie, the Acorn, and the Mighty Idea), Natakki Jones (Nia's Wash Day: A Family Tradition), Pam Vaughan (Missy Wants a Mammoth), Kari Percival (Safe Crossing), and Sage Smith (Crazy Pizza); 
Chapter Books/Early Readers: Janet Costa Bates (Rica Baptista Series Books 1 & 2), Jannie Ho (The Lost Mitten & Fry Guys) and Susan Tan (Invasion of the Pugs & Kittens are Monsters);
Middle Grade Novels: Lisa Stringfellow (Kingdom of Dust), Diana Renn (The Owl Prowl Mystery & Trouble at Turtle Pond), and Shawn Peters (The Unforgettable Logan Foster Books 1&2); & Young Adult: Laura Hatosy (Drawn from Memory) and Dirk Tiede (Paradigm Shift Books 1 & 2)

This amazing event is made possible with sponsorship from Kids’ Test Kitchen, Causative Connections, and a generous, partnership with Whitelam Books, Boys & Girl Club of Metro North and Kidcasso Art Studio.

We are proud to partner with independent bookstore: Whitelam Books, located in Reading, and excited to announce that The Room to Write will be giving away over 100 BOOKS FREE. Books were purchased and written locally.









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