A semifinalist on America’s Got Talent, David Smith’s “One Man Sideshow” is a riveting mix of juggling, sideshow contortion, plate spinning and more! This family-friendly comedian and performer will have you laughing out loud as you watch him juggle while playing the harmonica, and sing with both legs behind his head in an act that has brought him fame in the professional juggling community. Catch his performance near the Target Children's Stage on 20th Street before the Storybook Character Parade!

Mr. Q presents an urbanized version of Muungamano—a style of African storytelling that combines folk music, conjuring, puppets, and masks—while making balloon art. Mr. Q’s puppet Bow-Wow is a constant companion. Catch his performance near the Target Children's Stage on 20th Street before the Storybook Character Parade!
 

Paul Siegell is a Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News copywriter. He is the author of the poetry collection Poemergency Room. Siegell will be appearing in the Inquirer's Street Fair tent, Booth D.

Lovable clowns Judy and Cutie Tudy are a mother-and-daughter team who encourage children to reach into their imaginations and explore, inflating smiles with balloon sculpting. Get a balloon from Judy or Cutie near the Target Children's Stage before the Storybook Character Parade!

Who says libraries have to be quiet all the time? The 2008 Philadelphia Book Festival will kick off at the Target Children’s Stage at 11:30 a.m. (19th & the Parkway) on Saturday, May 17, with a song by Elmo and Abby Cadabby, followed by a performance from 11-year-old blind jazz sensation Rocco Fiorentino. 6abc’s Tamala Edwards will then introduce a cast of children’s story book favorites—including Maisy, Toot & Puddle, Winnie the Pooh, and Clifford the Big Red Dog—before everyone joins in to march in the Storybook Parade. Judy & Cutie Tudy and the Amazing Mr. Q will also be on hand, sculpting balloons before the parade, and there will be free noisemakers available (while supplies last), so be sure to come out and show these treasured friends just how much you love them by making as much noise as you can!

11-year-old blind jazz singer Rocco Fiorentino “sings like a bird, has perfect pitch, plays piano and drums … has been blind since birth,” says Jim Caruso, host of Cast Party at the famed Birdland Jazz Club in New York, where Rocco likes to perform. Whether he’s singing a jazz standard or playing one of his own compositions on piano, Rocco has wowed audiences from The Today Show to stages throughout the country. A blind activist, Rocco has encouraged NJ State Legislators to dedicate $1.2 million to Braille services and education. Visit www.musicbyrocco.com.

Join Sesame Place’s newest resident, Abby Cadabby, and the beloved Elmo as they sing “I Love Words” a song from the popular Sesame Place show called “Abby Cadabby’s Treasure Hunt” to welcome you to the 2008 Philadelphia Book Festival. Afterwards, don’t forget to say hello during the meet and greet! In the show, Abby and Elmo embark on a treasure hunt adventure as they search for clues to open a talking treasure trunk. Along the way, they’ll open their minds—and yours, too—to a world of imagination.

After three albums and 10 years of touring and recording, the Helio Sequence (Brandon Summers and former Modest Mouse drummer Benjamin Weikel) have recorded their most dynamic album to date. Keep Your Eyes Ahead marries the Portland duo’s signature layered keyboards and big guitars with crisp songwriting and a newfound appreciation for minimalism. Refreshingly unclassifiable, Keep Your Eyes Ahead is the sound of a band and a decade-old partnership that has been invigorated.
 

Healthy eating shouldn’t hurt, argues Food Network star and registered dietician Ellie Krieger. A proponent of good, fresh food prepared simply but deliciously, Krieger eschews the use of supposed “healthy” non-fat food substitutes, because when the fat goes out, the additives go in. The 200 recipes collected in The Food You Crave celebrate natural foods–including butter!–in moderate amounts as the keystone of a healthy lifestyle.

In a park in New York City lives a lonely little dog who must fend for himself, but everything changes one day when he sees a lady reading on a bench and decides to follow her—all the way to a place where he might become a star! Written by Broadway sensation Bernadette Peters—the Golden Globe and two-time Tony Award-winning star of Pennies from Heaven, Sunday in the Park with George, Annie Get Your Gun, and innumerable films—Broadway Barks is a story of love, loss and reunion, inspired by Peters’ passion for animals. Ms. Peters will read and perform “Kramer’s Song” from the CD accompanying her book. Published by Blue Apple Books.

Proceeds of the book benefit the Broadway Barks organization (co-founded by Peters and Mary Tyler Moore), a non-profit dedicated to promoting the adoption of shelter animals and responsible pet ownership.

As a natural clown, Jamie Adkins’ failures often end up being his greatest successes. In this show, his clowning and acrobatic feats are brought to life in a story of a man who has something to say, but can’t quite get it out. Circus INcognitus received the Best Comedy Play award at the 2007 Montreal Fringe Festival.

Drawing on vaudeville, circus arts, and theater traditions, Kiva and Devin of the Give & Take Jugglers surprise and please audiences with their impressive juggling and comedy. Performing from 1:00 until 3:00PM both days!
 

Appointed by Leonard Bernstein as the New York Philharmonic’s first composer-in-residence, David Amram—the “Renaissance man of American music” (Boston Globe)—has jammed with artists from Willie Nelson and Jack Kerouac to Kenya’s Masai Tribe. His memoir, Upbeat, is a chronicle of these musical experiences.

Author of the New York Times bestseller Waterdeep (under the pen name “Richard Awlinson”), science fiction master Troy Denning has written more than 19 novels, including many for the Star Wars Expanded Universe series. He is a former editor and game designer—most famously of Dark Sun, a Dungeons & Dragons game. Invincible is the final book in his Star Wars: Legacy of the Force series.

“A master of mood and atmosphere” (New York Times), Colin Harrison is the author of six thrillers, including Manhattan Nocturne, The Havana Room, and his latest, The Finder, a tale of global intrigue that reveals New York in all of its 21st-century splendor, greed, violence and desire. He spent six years as the deputy editor of Harper’s magazine and is now vice president and senior editor at Scribner.

Appearing with Margot Livesey

A native of the Scottish Highlands, Margot Livesey‘s thoughtful fiction showcases a keen wit and wise heart. The House on Fortune Street explores multiple perspectives on the life of a young London therapist while paying subtle homage to literary figures and great works including Lewis Carroll, Jane Eyre, and Great Expectations.

Appearing with Colin Harrison

Kate and Jim McMullan are the husband and wife team behind the clever children’s books I’m Mighty!, I’m Dirty!, and I Stink!, winner of a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor. I’m Bad! is about a tantrum-throwing T. Rex with one thing on his ravenous reptile mind—dinner!

James Merrill described Elizabeth Bishop’s poems as “more wryly radiant, more touching, more unaffectedly intelligent than any written in our lifetime.” Co-edited by Lloyd Schwartz, the Library of America edition of Bishop’s work is the first to collect all of her published poetry as well as most of her prose and many letters, offering a full-scale presentation of a writer of remarkable range and originality.

Drawing on the Rare Book Department’s extensive collection of early children’s books, this exhibition offers a fanciful display of recreational and instructional books spanning the 18th through early 20th centuries in England. Highlights include hornbooks, primers and chapbooks, as well as original works of Beatrix Potter, Kate Greenaway and Arthur Rackham. Open special Saturday hours from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. for the Book Festival, the exhibit will run in the Rare Books Department from April 14 – September 12, 2008.

Join us in the Government Publications Department for a fascinating look at the power of computers and how they have changed the lives of countless users. The Free Library provides talking computers for the visually impaired, with scanning and computer screen enlarging software, Braille translation and Braille embossing equipment. If you or someone you know could use a talking computer stop by and see how it works!

A poet, musician, and storyteller, Ron Carter is the co-founder of the Spoke “N” Weal literary group, facilitating workshops across the region and spinning his stories at places like the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Philadelphia Jazz Clef Club, Keepers of the Culture, and the African American Museum. Published in the Mad Poets Review, Carter is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and teaches African and Afro-Cuban drumming in Temple University’s Pan African Studies Community Education program. Enjoy stories by Ron Carter in between author presentations from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.

Carla Wiley has been a storyteller and educator in Philadelphia since 1986. As a Certified Mother Read Family Literacy Specialist, Wiley designs literacy based educational programs around the groups she serves. She is a Preschool Specialist with the Free Library of Philadelphia and a member of Keepers of the Culture, Philadelphia’s Afro-centric Storytelling Group, where she serves as historian. She uses her storytelling abilities as a historical re-enactor with the African American Museum in Philadelphia. Enjoy stories by Carla Wiley in between author presentations from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.

Irma Gardner-Hammond is known for her interactive storytelling style, delighting audiences of all ages all across the globe for over 15 years. Often incorporating music, drumming, movement, and drama, she is a healing storyteller who believes that humor and education are important parts of the healing process. A graduate of Howard University, Gardner-Hammond also participates in character reenactments from the Revolutionary era and the Underground Railroad, as well as holds workshops for schools, camps, churches, and business organizations. Enjoy stories by Irma Gardner-Hammond in between author presentations from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.

Singer-songwriter Alex Cuba is on the vanguard, crafting a cross-cultural sound that mirrors his geographical journey from his birthplace of Artemisa, Cuba to his residence in Smithers, British Columbia. “Like minty mojito poured on the tip of the tongue” (Chicago Tribune), his melodies, pop-soul hooks and rock chords subtly subvert commonly held notions of what Cuban music is. Not tied to tradition, this Cuban-Canadian prefers his vintage Gibson over el sencerro (“cowbell”) anytime.

Drawing from the musical heritage of the Caribbean, as well as Central and South America, Cantare´ communicates the rich fusion that results when diverse traditions come together. Cantare´ performs songs in Spanish and Portuguese, while also sharing with audiences the culture and history of their music.

Zen One Dance Collective fuses the movements of break dance, house, and the Brazilian art of capoeira while maintaining the roots and integrity of each form. Performing from 2:00 until 4:00 both days!
 

Charles Bock’s debut novel, Beautiful Children, is a sweeping portrait of a depraved Las Vegas, from the bland misery of the suburbs to the explosive and exploitative sex industry, through the eyes of a runaway boy. The Washington Post writes, “[Bock’s] ability to share a deep understanding of America’s million or so lost street kids and their tormented parents give the book a whiff of greatness.”

Appearing with Nathaniel Rich

Pulitzer Prize winner Jorie Graham spent her youth in Italy, attended New York University, and received her M.F.A. from the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She is the prolific author of 12 poetry collections, including her latest, Sea Change. “There is buoyancy in Graham’s poetry,” writes Roger Caldwell in the Times Literary Supplement, “…a freshness of vision which is rare in contemporary poetry.”

Told through the eyes of two men—one young, one old—whose lives intersect in the bustle of New York City and in the spectral, mountainous borderlands of northern Italy, Paris Review editor Nathaniel Rich’s debut novel is a meditation on the frustrations of love, the failings of language, and the transformative power of storytelling.

Appearing with Charles Bock

A foreign correspondent for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Trudy Rubin writes the paper’s “Worldview” column and has traveled to war zones across the Middle East, including those in Iraq, Israel, and Lebanon, where she was one of only a few women journalists reporting in the 1980s. Willful Blindness collects Rubin’s “Worldview “columns on Iraq from 2002 through 2004, vividly portraying how she sees the Bush administration as having misconceived and mishandled the Iraq War.

Moderator of the Middle East Panel with Michael Scheuer and Robin Wright

Michael Scheuer served in the CIA for 22 years. As Chief of the bin Laden Unit at the Counterterrorist Center from 1996 to 1999, Scheuer was personally involved in managing some of the largest and most covert actions in the Islamic World. In Marching Toward Hell, he argues that America is still unsafe from terrorists, not only because of the war in Iraq, but because of U.S. foreign policy since the end of the Cold War.

Middle East Panel with Robin Wright and moderated by Trudy Rubin

Wesley Stace follows up his international bestselling debut, Misfortune, with by George, the story of the Fisher family, as told by two different boys named George: one a dummy owned by one of the greatest ventriloquists of WWII-era Britain, the other the 11-year-old grandson of that ventriloquist, who uncovers a big secret about his famous grandfather.

A foreign correspondent who has reported from more than 140 countries, Robin Wright covers U.S. foreign policy for the Washington Post. She is the author of three previous books focused on modern Islam and contemporary Iranian politics. Of Dreams and Shadows, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright writes, “This volume, full of mesmerizing detail and large truths, sets a new standard for scholarship on the modern Middle East.”

Middle East Panel with Michael Scheuer and moderated by Trudy Rubin

Growing up in Harlem in the 1930s, Althea Gibson was tough and rebellious and had trouble finding her way. As a teenager, she discovered a talent for tennis, but at the time the sport was played mostly by wealthy white people in country clubs that excluded African Americans. Never one to shy away from a challenge, Althea set about becoming a barrier-breaking, world-famous athlete. Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award-winning illustrator Elbrite Brown helps to tell her story with colorful mixed media collages.

Stop by the Free Library Clubhouse for a commemorative photo with your favorite storybook characters! Maisy, Toot and Puddle, Clifford the Big Red Dog, and more will be on hand to say hello, give plenty of hugs, and pose for professional pictures from 2:00-4:00 p.m. each day in the Library Clubhouse that you can take home as a free souvenir.

A two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee, George Anastasia won the coveted Sigma Delta Chi Award for magazine reporting for his coverage of the Thomas Capano/Anne Marie Fahey murder. A long-time journalist with the Philadelphia Inquirer, Mr. Anastasia has covered casino gambling, Atlantic City, and the Mafia, and is the author several books including Mobfather, Blood and Honor, and The Big Hustle. He will be appearing at the Inquirer's Street Fair tent, Booth D.

Forsaking a "formal education" for the East Village art scene of the ‘80s, Rachelle Garniez picked up the accordion one afternoon in 1985 and fell in love—or as she puts it, "the joke backfired"—and soon thereafter began performing and recording with artists including Thomas Dolby and Rufus Wainwright.
 

Selected to create the 2008 Philadelphia Book Festival’s theme art, Brian Biggs has studied design at Parsons School of Design in New York City, lived in Paris and San Francisco, and is now settled in Philadelphia, where he writes and illustrates books (Shredderman, Goofball Malone), and creates illustrations for numerous publications.

Vicki Glembocki’s brutally honest and hilarious memoir The Second Nine Months chronicles her agonizing transition into motherhood as she struggles to balance who she was with who she’s become. Unlike other books on motherhood, Glembocki breaks the new mother “code of silence,” arguing that maternal bliss is not innate, but learned.

Motherhood Panel with Rachel Pastan, Amy Richards, and moderated by Jennifer Weiner

In The Guardians, bestselling Chicana author Ana Castillo tracks the perilous lives of Mexicans who illegally cross into the U.S. in search of work. “Ana Castillo is a fearless storyteller,” writes author Julia Alvarez. “This brave, unflinching novel shows the tragic consequences that come from not facing what is happening in our communities to those without true guardians to protect them.”

Appearing with Marisa de los Santos

Belong to Me is Marisa de los Santos’s follow-up to her New York Times bestselling novel, Love Walked In. Focusing on what happens when leaps of faith and twists of fate collide with our carefully constructed outer images, Belong to Me is a “bewitching, warmhearted grown-up fairy tale” (Jennifer Weiner).

Appearing with Ana Castillo

Rachel Pastan examines what it means to “have it all” as a mother, wife, and career woman in her new novel, Lady of the Snakes. “Pastan’s writing is fluid and frank,” notes the Washington Post, “and her characters are luminescent.” Booklist praises, “Writing an honest and intimate account of the demands on the contemporary working mother, Pastan expertly delivers an intriguing detective story with a clever academic twist.”

Motherhood Panel with Vicki Glembocki and Amy Richards, moderated by Jennifer Weiner

For contemporary women, motherhood is as polarizing a proposition as it is a powerful calling. Co-author of Manifesta and co-founder of the feminist speakers’ bureau, Soapbox, Amy Richards addresses the anxiety that women face today in balancing their maternal instincts with their political beliefs. Rosalind Wiseman says, “Opting In is intellectually rigorous, personally authentic, insightful, and brave–and frankly, how often can you say that about books on this subject?”

Motherhood Panel with Vicki Glembocki and Rachel Pastan, moderated by Jennifer Weiner

Jennifer Weiner’s novels are full of wit, spunk, and spot-on insights into human nature. Kirkus Reviews calls her latest novel, Certain Girls—the sequel to Weiner’s smash debut, Good in Bed—as “heartfelt and funny… a touching examination of both the comic and tragic moments that mark the mother-daughter relationship.”

Moderator of the Motherhood Panel with Vicki Glembocki, Rachel Pastan and Amy Richards

Gerald Stern writes poems “that get into your heart and stay there,” according to fellow poet Toi Derricotte. Stern, whose “terrific, boisterous energy has never flagged” (San Francisco Chronicle), has received numerous honors for his work, including the National Book Award and the Wallace Stevens Award for mastery in the art of poetry. Save the Last Dance is his latest collection of intimately personal, yet always universal, poems.

A child, a visit to the zoo, animals—sounds like good, simple all-American fun. But there’s something different about this zoo. These animals want things—unusual things. Laughs, jokes, and surprises abound in Pssst!, the story of a feisty, all-too-helpful little girl and her role in aiding and abetting zoo animal shenanigans. Written and illustrated by Adam Rex, whose other books include New York Times bestseller Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich and The True Meaning of Smekday, Pssst! is “a very funny excursion” (Publishers Weekly) through one crazy day at the zoo.

Through the material of the great blues masters, African American stories—and his own original songs, stories, and performance pieces—Guy Davis revives the traditions of acoustic blues.

A tornado of rhythm and sound born out of a passion for Brazilian music, Alô Brasil consists of 12 musicians spanning three generations. Their mission is to communicate the energizing joy, mind-boggling diversity, and historical and cultural significance of Brazilian music.
 

Philadelphia native Karen Abbott probes the inner workings of Chicago’s infamous Everleigh Club brothel—which operated from 1900 to 1911—and the private lives of Ada and Minna Everleigh, the brothel’s larger-than-life madams, in her New York Times bestseller Sin in the Second City.

Appearing with musician Steve Standiford

What happens when one woman dares to explore her every fantasy? Eleven-time New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey ponders that question, and the jealousy and obsession that can come with following one’s intimate desires, in his new novel, Pleasure—a book that marks his first foray into the erotica genre.

Former Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and current Poet Laureate of Connecticut, John Hollander is the author of more than a dozen poetry collections and seven volumes of literary criticism. Critic Harold Bloom writes, “Hollander’s expressive range and direct emotional power attain triumphant expression.”

Daniel J. Boyne, author of The Red Rose Crew and Essential Sculling, chronicles the life of Jack Kelly, the son of Irish immigrants, who grew up on the Schuylkill at the turn of the 20th century and became a three-time Olympic gold medalist in rowing, a political maverick, and the millionaire father of Princess Grace.

Steve Standiford is a cancer surgeon by day to support his ragtime habit. He has been playing ragtime piano for 35 years, often as the “lone voice in the wind” until finding a community of ragtime fans at festivals across the country. He has performed on piano, tuba, and string bass at major ragtime and Dixieland events and is eager to meet ragtime fans and performers alike.

Appearing with author Karen Abbott

A multi-faceted performer with over 40 years of experience as an actor in theater, film, and television, Roscoe Orman is best known for his 33 years as “Gordon Robinson” on the acclaimed children’s TV program Sesame Street. Ricky and Mobo tells the story of six-year-old Ricky, who is determined to win the big neighborhood race with his treasured mechanical horse, Mobo.

Gregory Maguire writes imaginative novels in which classic villains turn out to be heroes—and supposed heroes disappoint. In Wicked, his bestselling novel and basis for the smash Broadway musical of the same name, Maguire profiles Elphaba, the misunderstood Wicked Witch of the West. In Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, a retelling of Cinderella set in the Dutch Golden Age, Iris Fischer, Cinderella’s clever but painfully plain step-sister takes center stage. Maguire is also the author of Mirror Mirror, Son of a Witch, and most recently, What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy.

Named one of the New York Times Top 10 Best Books of 2007, Michael Thomas’s debut novel Man Gone Down is a striking portrait of a 35-year-old African American man, married to a white woman, trying to reconcile his reality with his fantasy of the “American Dream.” Central to the narrative are questions of race and class—representing the best and worst intentions of a supposedly integrated America.