Biography

Rita Williams-Garcia is the author of nine novels for young readers including the multi-award winning One Crazy Summer series. She has been awarded the Newbery Honor, the Coretta Scott King Author Award for each book in the One Crazy Summer series and has been twice named a National Book Award Finalist. Ms. Williams-Garcia is on the faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts Master of Fine Arts Writing for Children and Young Adults Program.

Schedule

11 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
State Library of Louisiana, 2nd Floor Meeting Room
Discussion
Blast from the Past

Noon to 12:45 p.m.
B&N Jr. Tent
Book Signing

1 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Children’s Author Tent 2
Book Talk
Bottle Cap Boys Dancing on Royal Street

1:45 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
B&N Jr. Tent
Book Signing

Gone Crazy in Alabama

Coretta Scott King Award winner * ALA Notable Book * School Library Journal Best Book of the Year * Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year * ALA Booklist Editors’ Choice * Shelf Awareness Best Book of the Year * Washington Post Best Books of the Year * The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books Blue Ribbon Book * Three starred reviews * CCBC Choice * New York Public Library 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing * Amazon Best Book of the Year

The Coretta Scott King Award–winning Gone Crazy in Alabama by Newbery Honor and New York Times bestselling author Rita Williams-Garcia tells the story of the Gaither sisters as they travel from the streets of Brooklyn to the rural South for the summer of a lifetime.

Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern are off to Alabama to visit their grandmother Big Ma and her mother, Ma Charles. Across the way lives Ma Charles’s half sister, Miss Trotter. The two half sisters haven’t spoken in years. As Delphine hears about her family history, she uncovers the surprising truth that’s been keeping the sisters apart. But when tragedy strikes, Delphine discovers that the bonds of family run deeper than she ever knew possible.

Powerful and humorous, this companion to the award-winning One Crazy Summer and P.S. Be Eleven will be enjoyed by fans of the first two books, as well as by readers meeting these memorable sisters for the first time.

Bottle Cap Boys Dancing on Royal Street

Tap dancing on sidewalks, especially in the city's French Quarter, is a New Orleans tradition as familiar to some as Jazz, Creole and Cajun food and Mardi Gras. For generations, Black youngsters have danced for tourists on the streets of New Orleans some because they enjoy it, but many others to earn money for their families. Instead of dancing in store bought tap shoes, young boys and girls stamp and grind bottle caps into the soles of their sneakers until the bottle caps stay firmly in place at the toe. And they don't miss a beat! Clickity-clack, Clack......tipity-tap, tap tap......tipity-tap, tap In Bottle Cap Boys Dancing on Royal Street, award-winning author Rita Williams-Garcia introduces two bottle cap dancers, brothers Randy and Rudy. Through rich and upbeat rhyme, Williams-Garcia gives voice to the dancing and the youngsters who keep this unique New Orleans tradition alive. Damian Ward's exuberant illustrations are perfect complements to Williams-Garcia's perfectly pitched poetry.