7:30 p.m. - Vanderslice Hall, Boston College

Diane deGroat is the award-winning illustrator of over 120 books. She has also written and illustrated the best-selling holiday series about Gilbert the Opossum. When she was nine, she visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art on a school field trip and bought a book on the history of painting at a souvenir shop. It was the only book she owned. Since then, she has spent years learning something new with each of her books and catching up on reading really great children's literature.

8:30 a.m.:  Registration, coffee & book sale

9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.: Program, Boston College, Vanderslice Hall

Jeff Kinney is the author/illustrator of the #1 New York Times bestsellers Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules. Jeff Mack has illustrated 13 books, including picture books by Eve Bunting and six books in James Howe's Bunnicula series. His new book, Hush Little Polar, is the first that he has also authored. Marcella Pixley is an 8th-grade English teacher as well as a "new Young Adult author to watch," according to School Library Journal, for her novel Freak. Alison Morris, children's book buyer for the Wellesley Booksmith and children's books blogger, will present her picks for Best New Books. The conference includes an exhibit of new books and a book sale and signing.

7:30 p.m. - Vanderslice Hall, Boston College

Illustrator and author Brian Lies drives a "Bats-Mobile"--an SUV wrapped in illustrations from his New York Times best-selling picture book Bats at the Beach--to school visits. This fall, the bats are back and up to more intriguing mischief in Bats at the Library. In creating the richly detailed paintings for the library-after-dark setting, he spent time at a public library in Riverside, Illinois that was a childhood favorite. Painting so many bats has had a curious effect on this illustrator of 20 children's books.

7:00 p.m. - Stata Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge

Join us for a night of good humor! In celebration of a new collection, George and Martha: The Complete Stories of Two Best Friends, we will feature several authors who contributed essays to the book in appreciation of James Marshall. Roger Sutton, editor of the Horn Book Magazine, will moderate a panel including authors David Wiesner, Susan Meddaugh, and Anita Silvey. Co-sponsored by the Cambridge Public Library, Houghton Mifflin Company, and the Horn Book Magazine. The book will be for sale.

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC--NO TICKETS REQUIRED

Directions, T and Parking: The Stata Center at M.I.T. is located at 32 Vassar St. (corner of Main St.), Cambridge, MA 02139. For directions, go to www.mit.edu or Mapquest. Take the Red Line subway to the Kendall/MIT station. On leaving the station, go west (away from Boston) on Main St., pass Ames St. on left, and you will see the Stata Center (it's distinctive) on the corner of Main and Vassar Sts. Metered parking on Vassar St. and a public parking lot at the corner of Vassar St. and Mass. Ave.

7:30 p.m. - Vanderslice Hall, Boston College

Graphic novels: a format or a genre? Comics or literature? How to read them? How to evaluate them? Join us for a lively and informative panel discussion featuring Robin Brenner, youth librarian in Brookline and author of Understanding Manga and Anime; Maya Escobar, youth librarian in Cambridge with a passion for graphic novels and anime; and Alexander Danner, formerly a bookseller at Porter Square Books, co-author of Character Design for Graphic Novels, and a graphic novelist.

7:30 p.m. - WALSH HALL (behind Vanderslice Hall), Boston College

Debbie Miller has lived in Northern Alaska for 40 years and has developed a passion for writing nature books about the extraordinary wilderness and wildlife that surround her home near Fairbanks. She and her family have studied the great caribou herds and observed wolves, grizzly and polar bears, musk oxen, and other Alaskan animals. She weaves story and fact together in her many creative non-fiction books including Big Alaska, Arctic Lights-Arctic Nights, and A Polar Bear Journey.

9 a.m.: Registration, Coffee and Book Sale          

9:30 a.m.-1 p.m.: Program, Boston Athenaeum Library, Beacon Hill (www.bostonathenaeum.org for directions)

Our 2nd year at the Boston Athenaeum--Join us!

Join us at the Boston Athenaeum--a 200-year-old independent library on Beacon Hill that is also a National Historic Landmark--for our "What's New in Children's Books?" half-day conference. Sara Pennypacker, author of the award-winning Clementine books, will be one of several featured speakers. Others will be posted here in the late fall. We'll also present our Best New Books for Spring. This event includes refreshments, book sale and signing.

New England Voices features area authors and illustrators reading from their new work and spotlights new talent in the field of children' s literature. Speakers will be posted here in the late winter. BOOK SALES AND REFRESHMENTS--FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC