Shoshana Flax:

"Are We There Yet?" was the theme of this year's Children’s Literature Summer Institute at Simmons University. I got to be there for Friday evening and most of Saturday, and heard different speakers consider different answers to the title question. 

Gregory Maguire introduced the Institute’s topic and reflected on how Simmons’s Center for the Study of Children’s Literature, now fifty years old, has gotten where it is. Lauren Rizzuto, who taught the graduate course culminating in this year’s institute, shared her research on the evolution of environmentalist narratives for children. Editor Rotem Moscovich and author-illustrator Doug Salati traced his 2023 Caldecott winner Hot Dog’s journey. At her lunch session, Anita Silvey took us on a trip through her favorite books for young people, sharing anecdotes of how they came to be. Vashti Harrison, 2024 Caldecott Medalist for Big, and Breanna J. McDaniel had a conversation about “creating with hope and awareness” — like many of the speakers, they addressed the difficult moment we’re in right now. And author-illustrator Paul O. Zelinsky and Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art curator Ellen Keiter discussed where Zelinsky’s career has been and where it's going, and ended with a digital drawing demo. 

I even got Vashti Harrison to sign a gift for a newborn cousin who’s just arrived...or just starting on her way...or both. Here’s to a weekend that was a just-right destination. 

Elissa Gershowitz:

The last weekend of July 2025 was a great time to be a “children’s literature enthusiast” in Boston (and don’t get me started on the first week of August!). On Saturday, July 26, I was at the Boston Public Library in conversation with Svetlana Chmakova about her graphic novel Awkward, this year’s Boston Reads Comics selection. Our talk was part of an afternoon-long event in celebration of the format, sponsored by the Boston Comic Arts Foundation, who also puts on MICE, Picture + Panel, Boston Comics in Color Festival, Boston Kids Comics Fest, the upcoming Calmer Con Boston, and more.

Sunday, July 27, was my day at Simmons for the Children's Literature Summer Institute (above), leading a lunchtime discussion session on Horn Book history and the institute’s theme: "Are We There Yet?" and catching up with friends and colleagues at our old stomping grounds (i.e., pre-COVID-19 offices). I was able to listen to Lisa Yee’s thoughtful and hilarious talk and the start of Sydney Smith and Neal Porter’s excellent (so I heard afterward) conversation. My first Simmons institute as a student was Halos & Hooligans. I’ll leave it to you to find that poster in the slideshow below…and then to do the math.