2024 Brooklyn Book Festival - Children's Day
*The event has already taken place on this date: Sat, 09/28/2024
Please help us keep this calendar up to date! If this activity is sold out, canceled, or otherwise needs alteration, email mindy@kidsoutandabout.com so we can update it immediately. If you have a question about the activity itself, please contact the organization administrator listed below.
Children’s Day - September 28th
10:00 am
Picture Book Stage, Brooklyn Commons
Join award-winning picture book creator C.G. Esperanza as he performs and reads from Kicks in the Sky, a rollicking tale about everyday treasures turned magical and the extravaganza joy that happens when kids try on enchanted sneaks.
Free
Picture Book Stage, Brooklyn Commons
Buffalo Fluffalo huffs and puffs, proving his size and superiority to the other animals. But when a storm comes and soaks his fluff, will his bluffing hold up? Join comedy writer Bess Kalb for an endearing, relatable, and laugh-out-loud tale about self-acceptance and community—no matter your size!
Free
Workshop Room 400, NYU Tandon, 5 MetroTech Center
Jason Logan, author of Make Ink and How to Be a Color Wizard, will host a workshop of Living Colors. Experiment with non-toxic foraged art supplies, including local rust, acorns, beet juice, and other finds while learning the science, art, and magic of color! All ages. Bring your curiosity.
Free
Makers and Creators Area, Brooklyn Commons
Join author and illustrator Aimee Sicuro to create leaf collages. Inspired by the color and shape of each leaf, you can create a drawing that imagines what else your leaves could be. Join Aimee for a reading of If You Find a Leaf and a brief Q&A about how this book was made.
Picture Book Stage, Brooklyn Commons
What happens when you plan a pizza party and there is no pizza? Prepare to meet Edgar the shark and his best crab friend, Lotta, as they bring together their deep sea friends to create the best ever underwater pizza party. Get ready for cheesy puns and laugh out loud humor from NYT bestselling author Mike Lowery.
Free
East Flatbush middle school students of Brooklyn Science and Engineering Academy will be reading from their published book of poetry, Where I Live, on the topics of place, identity, homelessness and migration
Free
Picture Book Stage, Brooklyn Commons
“Blame It On the Baloney” by the Barbershop Beagles! “Fleas in the Flapjacks, Fiddledeedee” by the Fabulous Foxes of Folk! “Sometimes the Soup Is Salty” by the Sensational Sloth Boys! These are just three of the 26 hilarious songs written by legendary El Deafo author Cece Bell for her new alphabet book, a special and silly homage to the golden age of album covers and music across the decades.
Free
Olive’s artist parents like prim shapes and proper colors. But Olive likes to splosh and spatter and smear! She splashes her way all over town, spreading color and joy, but what happens when she arrives at her parents’ spotless art museum? Lian Cho’s award-winning book is a paint-splattered celebration of creativity, coloring outside the lines, and being yourself. Join Lian Cho for a fun filled coloring activity and celebrate your artistic spirit.
Free
Young Readers Stage, Brooklyn Commons
Adventure awaits around every corner for these city kids. Make a new furry feline friend in Hilda Eunice Burgos‘ Bodega Cats: Picture Purrfect, discover Afro-Caribbean magic in Tracey Baptiste‘s Moko Magic: Carnival Chaos, and solve the mystery of a missing neighbor with a young podcaster turned sleuth in Sarvenaz Tash‘s The Queen of Ocean Parkway. In moderator Rob Cameron‘s Daydreamer, reality and fantasy collide through one boy’s power of imagination.
Free
Workshop Room 400, NYU Tandon, 5 MetroTech Center
Join Taiwanese illustrator Lian-En Lin and design your very own dream home! Using papers of different shapes, thicknesses, colors, and transparency, you’ll tear and paste to bring your imaginative ideas to life. Inspired by Lian-En Lin’s picture book Home, get ready to draw, color, and create collages, and let your creative juices flow!
Free
Makers and Creators Area, Brooklyn Commons
Make a pop-up greeting card with author-illustrator Cat Min! Cat will read her book The Little Toymaker and teach you how to make your very own dynamic pop-up card from construction paper, glue, and colored pencils.
Free
Makers and Creators Area, Brooklyn Commons
Watch illustrator Jorge Cham (Oliver’s Great Big Universe: Volcanoes Are Hot!) in action as he creates cartoon portraits – maybe of you – on the spot and creates a drawing for you to bring home. See a master doodler at work.
Free
NYU Tandon School of Engineering Auditorium, 5 Metrotech Center
Join us for a conversation bound to give you goosebumps! R.L. Stine, the master of fright and one of the most popular children’s authors in history, will discuss the enduring popularity of Goosebumps, read from his newest House of Shivers novel, and judge an audience scary story contest. Bring your own spine tingling story to share — the most thrilling tale will win a Goosebumps tote bag full of ghoulish goodies!
Free
Picture Book Stage, Brooklyn Commons
Cesaria can’t wait to perform at the Carnival, but when her dance director tells her to put on her shoes for the show, that means that she can’t feel the music through her feet! No one seems to get it—until everyone takes their shoes off and learns to feel the beat with her. Join Denise Rosario Adusei in reading this joyous book about deafness, Carnival, and friendship.
Free
Picture Book Stage, Brooklyn Commons
What happens when you’re not allowed to make a book about dinosaurs? Or hippos? Or avocados? Rapper and author Raj Haldar’s picture book explores what a “banned book” is and what it means to erase or allow an idea, taking young and old readers on a hilarious and meaningful journey about sharing ideas and what belongs in a book.
Free
Young Readers Stage, Brooklyn Commons
Watch as two talented author-illustrators bring your Mad Libs suggestions to life! In true “Mad Libs” style, the audience will be prompted to “fill-in-the-blank” and watch as Booki Vivat (Meet Me On Mercer Street) and Gale Galligan (Freestyle) will draw audience suggestions into their graphic novels. With help from hosts Dan Brozo and Dizzy Doom (Digital Lizards of Doom), help create the silliest story possible!
Free
Makers and Creators Area, Brooklyn Commons
Get creative! Write and illustrate a wee, mouse-sized book with Margaret McCartney and Jodi Levine, authors/illustrators of Mousetown. Mini blank book and a tiny shopping bag to carry it home provided!
Free
Workshop Room 400, NYU Tandon, 5 MetroTech Center
Vojtěch Mašek, a writer from Prague and Czechia, presents the adventurous and humorous story of Puppet, Plum Pit, Plum, Plank and Back to Puppet, which won the Ragazzi Award at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. During the workshop, children will be able to create their own puppet, which was formerly a plank, plum, and plum pit, while discovering something about its tangled story. What does a plum pit have to go through before it becomes a puppet?
NYU Tandon School of Engineering Auditorium, 5 Metrotech Center
Get your hands ready to clap for your favorites as beloved illustrators Mike Lowery (Pizza Shark), Julie Kwon (I’m Sorry You Got Mad), and Tatiana Gardel (Abuelo, the Sea, and Me) battle it out in a raucous drawing contest emceed by the fantastic Ruth Chan (Uprooted) and Steven Weinberg (What is Color?)!
Free
Picture Book Stage, Brooklyn Commons
Piper Chen loves to sing, so she’s thrilled to have a solo for the Spring Concert… thrilled and also very nervous.. Piper and her grandmother have always shared a love of music, so she asks Nai Nai for help. With this NY Times bestseller, Maris Pasquale Doran tells a touching intergenerational story that focuses on emotional awareness, warms the heart, and will ease performance jitters in any reader.
Free
Picture Book Stage, Brooklyn Commons
Sweet and Sour are two pickles who just can’t get along! Backyard battles ensue and the competition is fierce—can they settle their differences? Brian Yanish and Stacy Ebert have crafted a dill-ightfully silly story about second chances and uniting over what makes us special that readers will be sure to relish!
Free
Young Readers Stage, Brooklyn Commons
An interactive quiz gameshow! Perfect for kids, tweens, and adults! Test your science and mythology trivia knowledge against middle grade novelists, including George O’Connor (Asgardians: Odin), Deeba Zargarpur (Farrah Noorzad and the Ring of Fate), Jorge Cham (Oliver’s Great Big Universe: Volcanoes Are Hot!), and Rebecca Donnelly (Survival of the Fittest). Hosted by Dave Roman (Unicorn Boy).
Free
Workshop Room 400, NYU Tandon, 5 MetroTech Center
Author Bruce Handy and illustrator Lisk Feng read their book, There Was a Shadow, and lead a dynamic art and poetry workshop exploring shadows, light, shapes, and color.
Free
Makers and Creators Area, Brooklyn Commons
Design your own sneakers with award-winning creator C.G. Esperanza (Kicks in the Sky) in this craft activity, where kids and parents can color, sticker, and dream up their own fresh kicks to hang up!
Free
Picture Book Stage, Brooklyn Commons
Ernesto is finally a niño grande, old enough to walk to school by himself. Each morning, his mom hands him a quarter and says they’re for emergencies—only for the pay phone if he needs to call her. But every day is full of temptations—baseball cards, sizzling tamales, arcade games… How will Ernesto choose to spend his quarters? Carlos Matias delivers a playful, vibrant book about city life and growing up.
Free
Young Readers Stage, Brooklyn Commons
Come watch illustrators Ruth Chan (Uprooted) and Liz Montague (School for Unusual Magic 1: Equinox Test) draw a story live as emcee John Hendrix (The Mythmakers: The Remarkable Fellowship of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien) weaves the tale from your audience suggestions!
Free
Workshop Room 400, NYU Tandon, 5 MetroTech Center
What is Color? The Global and Sometimes Gross Story of Pigments, Paint, and the Wondrous World of Art author Steven Weinberg will lead children through an exciting introduction to color theory and pigment making—plus some good old-fashioned coloring, too! Materials will be provided so participants can color in pieces of art that are found in the book, and also at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
*Times, dates, and prices of any activity posted to our calendars are subject to change. Please be sure to click through directly to the organization’s website to verify.