We love A2SF (or the Ann Arbor Summer Festival for newcomers to the fun!).
On Tuesday, June 13 from 5-8 pm, Booksweet is bringing three of our favorite picture book authors to the A2SF KidZone tent for a super special A2SF Storytime! This event is FREE and open to the public. Donations to A2SF are always appreciated.
At the start of each hour, from 5-7 pm, families enjoy a story together, followed by a kid-led author Q&A. This is a chance for the youngest readers to ask authors about their work and their very cool job. We’ll also do a fun zine craft together, helping kids tell and draw their own stories. Booksweet will be on-site with a little pop-up shop, selling books by all of the authors featured at the event.
Featuring three incredible storytime readings, including:
- 5PM: Stacie Sheldon, author of Bebikaan-Ezhiwebiziwinan Nimkii: The Adventures of Nimkii, a dual-language Anishinaabemowin/English book
- 6PM: Kyunghee Kim, author of See Us Bloom: Poems on Compassion, Acceptance, and Bravery
- 7PM: Aya Khalil, author of The Arabic Quilt and The Night Before Eid
ABOUT THE AUTHORS //
Aya Khalil is an award-winning author and freelance journalist. Aya and her books have been featured in Oprah Daily, Teen Vogue, Yahoo!, Book Riot and USA Today. Her writing has been published in The Huffington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, Toledo Area Parent and many others. Her debut picture book The Arabic Quilt: An Immigrant Story, has won numerous awards and honors. She is also the author of a board book, Our World: Egypt, and The Night Before Eid: A Muslim Family Story, a picture book about three generations of Egyptian-Americans bonding over a special Eid treat. Her forthcoming book, The Great Banned-Books Bake Sale, tells the tale of a girl and her classmates finding out their school district has banned diverse books and they organize a bake sale and protest. Aya is a Muslim Highlights Foundation Storyteller and a co-founder of Kidlit in Color, a group of traditionally published BIPOC creatives who nurture one another, amplify diverse voices, and advocate for equitable representation in the industry.
Kyunghee Kim is an author, life coach, public school educator, and proud Korean American immigrant who believes that stories have the power to be a catalyst for connection, compassion, and change. Her writing for kids and adults largely focuses on identity, mental health, wellbeing, and living when grief doesn’t go away. She is certified in yoga and mindfulness teaching and she is excited to share her new book, See Us Bloom with local families.
Stacie Sheldon is an enrolled member of the Mackinac Bands of Chippewa and Ottawa Indians. She is an author, human centered design strategist and researcher, and language advocate. She is a co-founder and manager of Ojibwe.net, an independently run non-profit website dedicated to learning and teaching Anishinaabemowin. Out of this work comes her dual-language (Anishinaabemowin and English) children’s book Bebikaan-Ezhiwebiziwinan Nimkii (The Adventures of Nimkii), starring her real-life dog companion Nimkii.
This event is generously sponsored by C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.