The highlights of the day for me were the Author Spotlights.
Our Mystery Book Club has read several books by Allen Eskens previously and we look forward to reading his newest book, The Quiet Librarian. He is a dynamic speaker. It would have been great if our entire book club had been able to hear him.
The second author, Ojibwe artist, Kent Estey presented his biography of his grandmother, Josephine Robinson, in his book Picking Sweet Grass, illustrated by Anna Granholm. I plan on sharing this book with Mystery Book Club members. We have read several books about and written by Indigenous People. His grandmother was forced to attend the Indian Schools in Minnesota and Pennsylvania. At one time Minnesota had 14 Indian Schools. The last of these schools weren’t closed until the 1990’s. I will also share the book with our Children’s Librarian.
The third author was Trisha Speed Shaskan. She has created teaching and activity guides to accompany several books – The Itty-Bitty Witch, Too, the Fox and The Great Get-Together. The Great Get-Together is especially fun and meaningful to children who attend County Fairs and the Minnesota State Fair (Also called, The Great Minnesota Get-Together. I plan to share this information with our Children’s Librarian and teachers I know.
I was more hopeful after visiting the people at the Twin Cities PBS vender booth about the cuts in funding for Public Broadcasting. The four of us had a positive discussion.