Anita Silvey at the Northwoods Children's Book Conference

Northwoods Children's Book Conference is pleased to announce Anita Silvey as the keynote speaker and presenter for this year's conference to be held September 30 and October 1 at Lakewoods Resort in Cable, Wisconsin.

Ms. Silvey is a nationally recognized author and advocate of youth literacy. She has devoted 35 years promoting books that will turn the young - and families - into readers. To do this she has appeared frequently on NPR, "The Today Show," "60 Minutes," and radio programs in the United States and Canada to talk about books for children and teenagers. As Publishers Weekly has said "It would be hard to find a more authoritative voice than Anita Silvey."

Anita Silvey has been in the book industry as an author, publisher of children's books, editor of journals in the field and reviewer/evaluator. In a unique career in the children's book field, Ms. Silvey has divided her time equally between publishing and evaluating children's books. But her lifelong conviction that "only the very best of anything can be good enough for the young" forms the cornerstone of her work. Ms. Silvey served for eleven years as Editor-in-Chief of The Horn Book Magazine, a publication many call "the Bible of children's literature." As Editor of Horn Book, she read several thousand books a year, hunting for those of exceptional quality that children return to again and again. Bev Bauer, of Redbery Books and a sponsor of the event says, "I have followed Anita Silvey from afar my entire career. It's a real highlight to have her here for the conference."

Silvey will be delivering the keynote address on Friday, October 1st, the title of which is also the title of her latest book, "Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Book." In addition, she will present a three-hour workshop Thursday, September 30 titled, "Like a Rolling Stone, the Changing Landscape of Young Adult Books."

In the spirit of her title, the conference will conclude at the end of the day with a fun-filled hour of presenters and selected attendees sharing thoughts on the influential children's book that gave them everything they needed to know to prepare the for life.

More information and registration details can be found online at www.northwoodsbook.org. Sponsors include Northern Waters Library Service and Children's Literature Network.