Author
Sara is the New York Times best-selling author of seventeen children's books, including the Clementine series; Summer of the Gypsy Moths; Pierre in Love; Sparrow Girl; Stuart’s Cape; and Stuart Goes to School. She has also contributed four books to the venerable Flat Stanley series. Her books have won numerous awards, including a Golden Kite Award and a Christopher’s Medal, several children’s choice state awards, and have appeared on many 'Best Books' lists.
sarapennypacker.com
Illustrator
Marla has received two Caldecott Honors for All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon, and for A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever, which she also wrote. She is the author-illustrator of Roller Coaster, Walk On!, and Santa Claus the World's Number One Toy Expert, as well as the illustrator of many other books including NYT bestselling Clementine series with author Sara Pennypacker, who will appear with her at the 2013 UVU Forum on Engaged Reading.
marlafrazee.com
Author
Jim is the Newbery Honor and Sibert award-winning author of more than 35 nonfiction and fiction for children and young adults, including Truce, the Day the Soldiers Stopped Fighting and The Crossing: How George Washington Saved the American Revolution.
jimmurphybooks.com
Author/Illustrator
Loreen has written and illustrated over 40 picture books with math, science, language arts, and other curriculum content. Schools and libraries nationwide have copies of Measuring Penny, Fraction Action, Symmetry, Crazy Like a Fox: A Simile Story, and many of her other titles. Her newest book is Jack & the Hungry Giant, which introduces the MyPlate nutrition program.
loreenleedy.com
Utah Valley University President
Dr. Matthew S. Holland is the President of Utah Valley University, where he has been serving since June of 2009.
Before assuming his current position, President Holland was an associate professor of political science at Brigham Young University, where he taught courses in political philosophy and American political thought. There he received BYU’s “Civically Engaged Scholar of the Year” in 2008 by Utah Campus Compact. His scholarly research on how ideals of Christian charity influenced the development of American political life garnered national attention. In 2005, he won Princeton University’s James Madison Fellowship. He has written and collaborated on a number of scholarly books including Benjamin Franklin’s Intellectual World (2012), A Fork in the Road (2012), and Bonds of Affection: Civic Charity and the Making of America (2007), which was selected as an "outstanding academic title" by Choice Magazine.
He graduated from Brigham Young University with honors in 1991 as valedictorian for the political science department. That same year he was awarded the Raoul Wallenberg Scholarship for a year of graduate study at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Before going on to earn his master’s degree and Ph.D. in political science at Duke University, President Holland served as chief of staff for the top executive of the international consulting firm Monitor Group and, later, as special assistant to then-Governor Michael O. Leavitt.
Currently, he serves on numerous community boards, including the editorial advisory board of the Deseret News and the boards of the Utah Valley and Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce, the Wells Fargo Community Board, and is Chair of the Utah Campus Compact Board of Directors. He and his wife, Paige, have four children, Jacob, Mitzi, Grace and Dan.
Author
Jan’s first children’s book, Miss Moore Thought Otherwise, is a Junior Library Guild selection, a nominee for the Amelia Bloomer Project award, and a Huffington Post “best book for summer 2013.” A lifelong lover of libraries, Jan felt strongly that children needed to know how they came to have the gifts and privileges that libraries offer them. She wanted to generate support for libraries today and also to encourage “otherwise-thinking” children to value and pursue their own ideas—and make their own unique contributions to the world. A children’s magazine editor by day, Jan has another nonfiction picture book in the works.
Themed gift bags donated by the Dennis and Joan Norton Family Foundation.
Author Jim Murphy signing books.
Provo Library director Gene Nelson keeping sessions lively.
Illustrator Marla Frazee and author Sarah Pennypacker.
