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With all the changes that have come with COVID-19, major events have either had to cancel or adjust. The Miami Book Fair International has adapted and is going virtual Nov. 15-22.
The book fair developed their own platform for the event, which will be a mix of pre-recorded videos and live question and answer sessions.
“It’s like Netflix for books,” said Marci Cancio-Bello, Miami Book Fair program coordinator.
One of the featured speakers in the Children’s Alley is Caldecott winner Dan Santat, author/illustrator of Beekle and After the Fall. His featured book is The Alphabet’s Alphabet by Chris Harris. Santat also created the 2020 poster.
“It was an absolute pleasure to work with Dan,” Cancio-Bello said. “It’s a delightful book, it was one of my favorites of the season.”
Cancio-Bello said Santat was one of the first children’s authors to engage with kids in the pandemic.
“He’s really innovative and creative,” she said. “We are thrilled to have him this year.”
Santat said he shot two presentations, one for children and one for parents and kids. The videos will be available online indefinitely.
“When I read it, it was amazing,” Santat said. “He made it work visually in his head. The other part of the brilliance is that it’s all in perfect rhyme. The fact that he could use 26 letters, not repeating a letter and in perfect rhyme… When I read it, I really wanted to be a part of it.”
Santat said most alphabet books name a ton of things but The Alphabet’s Alphabet focuses on the shape of the letters.
“The theme is we’re all alike in certain ways,” he said.
Santat said that after drawing all 26 letters of the alphabet in a variety of ways, he did have a few favorites, including the X staring into the lake and the R and K with a mask where the space is.
While working up the art, he realized that one of the lines in the book didn’t quite work. He talked to the editor about it and the editor talked to Harris.
“He came up with three different options. R is a K with a mask,” Santat said.
He was blown away with how quickly and perfectly Harris came up with the new lines.
“To see him work on that letter and have it turn into one of my favorites…” Santat said.
Santat is happy to be involved in the book fair. He misses interacting with kids.
“When I started out, I can’t say I was a huge fan of doing school visits,” he said. “I wanted to focus on doing the books.”
A series of school visits with author Aaron Reynolds helped change his mind.
“As time went on, I really enjoyed and embraced school visits,” he said. “Doing Zoom, it’s not the same. I could be showing you pictures of my dog, there’s no feedback.”
Now, he would rather get on a plane and fly from California to Florida, get a hotel and do a presentation.
Santat has four books coming out this year including an update of The Little Engine that Could which is included in Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. He also illustrated Lift by Minh Le and Little Fox and the Wild Imagination by Jorma Taccone.
The book fair will feature more than 200 authors and will incorporate a virtual Children’s Alley. Programs will be available in English, Spanish and Creole. For more information, go to MiamiBookFair.com
