Thursday, October 15

Step inside a museum on wheels. The VMFA Artmobile brings an immersive art experience directly to the festival, giving small groups of students the opportunity to encounter works of art and museum interpretation in an intimate mobile-gallery setting. Capacity is approximately 20 students at a time. The Artmobile will be available during each regular session window and during lunch/bookstore time.

Leland Melvin introduces students to the realities of life in space through photos and stories from his NASA career and explores real engineering challenges astronauts face as we prepare for missions to the Moon and Mars. Illustrator Mike Lowery shows students how imagination is just as important as engineering by bringing their ideas to life through hilarious live drawings. Together, they demonstrate that every great invention begins with someone asking, "What if?"

Amber shares the inspiration behind The Leaving Room, discussing how authors transform difficult experiences into stories that offer hope, connection, and understanding. She reads selected passages and talks about the power of telling our stories.

Some of the most important moments in a story aren't the loud ones. Sometimes they're found in silence, in waiting, in noticing, and in the space between one page and the next. Join Philip and Erin Stead for a gentle exploration of how quiet moments can become the heart of a story.

Every great hero needs a memorable look, an unforgettable name, and a mission worth fighting for. Join Raúl the Third as students discover how artists create characters that leap off the page and into readers' imaginations.

Join illustrator Jay Cooper and author Russell Ginns as they unveil their new graphic novel Super Atomic Wombat Girl. Learn about inventing superheroes, designing giant lizard-shaped robots, and dreaming up evil schemes to spread mayhem. Come prepared to solve puzzles, invent heroes, and save the world!

Chris welcomes students into the "Department of Ridiculous Ideas," where every strange thought is celebrated. Through readings, storytelling, and live demonstrations, he reveals how many of his funniest poems began with a single silly question.

Karina introduces one of the kinds of problems the Vanderbeekers love solving: helping a lonely neighbor, saving a local business, bringing people together, or fixing a misunderstanding. Students work together to tackle a fictional neighborhood crisis and discover how authors use problems, choices, and community to build a story.

Every great adventure begins with one simple choice: opening a door. Daniel demonstrates how authors transform ordinary ideas into extraordinary stories while inviting students to help build a brand-new adventure from the ground up.

Every object has a story. A rusty key, a worn suitcase, a cracked teacup, or an old baseball glove may look ordinary, but what if each one held the secret to an incredible adventure? Join Johnny Marciano as students discover how writers use everyday objects to unlock extraordinary stories.

Fairy tales have shaped our ideas about heroes, villains, monsters, and happily-ever-afters for centuries. Elana explores why she chose to reimagine a classic fairy tale in Damsel and how authors use familiar stories to challenge expectations and explore complex themes.

There is no single right answer in art. Ruth begins with incomplete drawings and challenges students to imagine what might come next. Students see how the same starting image can lead to completely different ideas, then complete unfinished illustrations in their own unique ways.

Every old photograph tells a story, but not always the one we expect. Join author and illustrator Selina Alko as students become history detectives, using observation, imagination, and empathy to uncover the stories hidden inside vintage photographs.

Step inside a museum on wheels. The VMFA Artmobile brings an immersive art experience directly to the festival, giving small groups of students the opportunity to encounter works of art and museum interpretation in an intimate mobile-gallery setting.

Longwood University musicians bring the beloved story of Babar to life onstage through music and performance. As the musicians perform the score, the story unfolds through live acting, giving children the chance to experience how music, movement, and storytelling work together to create a theatrical world.

Chris Harris and Malik-16 turn poetry into a playground where rhythm, rhyme, wordplay, and wonderfully ridiculous ideas collide. Chris shares how poets play with language while Malik brings those words to life through rhythm and performance.

Amber shares how she develops memorable characters by understanding their emotions, relationships, dreams, and struggles before writing a single page. Students use those ideas to begin building fictional characters of their own.

Where do stories come from? Erin and Philip Stead share how writers and illustrators pay attention to ordinary things and allow curiosity to lead them toward a story.

Get ready for a fast-paced battle of creativity hosted by Russell Ginns. Mike Lowery, Jay Cooper, Ruth Chan, and Raul the Third face off in live drawing challenges inspired by audience suggestions and surprise prompts. Students help determine what the illustrators must draw as unexpected combinations, strange characters, and ridiculous situations come to life before their eyes.

Daniel explores the relationship between memory, truth, autobiography, and fiction while discussing how writers tell emotional truths even when memories are imperfect.

Every family road trip becomes legendary because of the stories collected along the way. Join Pablo Cartaya as the audience builds one unforgettable adventure filled with strange roadside attractions, unexpected detours, hilarious disasters, and surprising heroes.

Students become NASA robotics engineers as they learn how precision, teamwork, and communication help accomplish extraordinary things. Inspired by real robotic systems used in space, teams work through an engineering challenge that requires careful coordination and problem-solving.

Johnny Marciano reveals how writers create characters that make readers laugh and keep them turning pages. He introduces students to Klawde, the self-proclaimed evil alien warlord trapped in the body of a house cat, and explores how funny characters grow from the way they think, speak, and react.

Fairy tales have shaped our ideas about heroes, villains, monsters, and happily-ever-afters for centuries. Elana explores how authors use familiar stories to challenge expectations, explore complex themes, and give voice to characters whose stories have often gone untold.

Nature is filled with remarkable stories waiting to be discovered. Eric shares how science, observation, and artistic curiosity come together to create nonfiction picture books that inspire wonder.

Can you send a chill down someone's spine in exactly 100 words? Join Lamar Giles for a fast-paced flash fiction workshop where students discover how to build suspense, create memorable characters, and make every word count.

Step inside a museum on wheels. The VMFA Artmobile brings an immersive art experience directly to the festival, giving small groups of students the opportunity to encounter works of art and museum interpretation in an intimate mobile-gallery setting.

If your life had a museum, what five objects would tell your story? Amber discusses how writers use meaningful objects to tell powerful stories and reveal character without explaining every emotion directly.

Malik performs and examines age-appropriate lines from Shakespeare alongside selected hip hop lyrics, challenging students to identify the voice before revealing the source. Students compare language, sound, figurative language, and word choice while discovering connections between literary traditions.

Do you have what it takes to escape the sinister, slimy horror of The Boogerman? Can you face the dreadful, dangerous doom of Instagrave? Join author Russell Ginns as he presents some of the grossest, silliest stories from his terrifying-hilarifying series 1-2-3 Scream! Get ready to read and scream along. You have been warned!

A story begins with a blank page, one strange idea, and a room full of people willing to imagine what happens next. Daniel Nayeri and Mike Lowery build an original story in real time, with the audience helping to decide the characters, problems, surprises, and increasingly ridiculous details.

Chris welcomes students into the "Department of Ridiculous Ideas," where every strange thought is celebrated. Through readings, storytelling, and live demonstrations, he reveals how many of his funniest poems began with a single silly question.

Join Lamar Giles as students explore how complex characters create exciting conflicts. Lamar shares examples of memorable villains from his own books and explains that strong antagonists have goals, motivations, fears, strengths, and weaknesses that make readers understand them, even when readers disagree with them.

Raúl the Third's books reward readers who slow down and look closely. Every page is packed with hidden jokes, visual clues, side stories, and colorful details. Students become Story Detectives and discover how illustrators can tell multiple stories at the same time.

For generations, readers have followed twelve little girls walking through Paris in two straight lines. John Bemelmans Marciano invites students into the playful world of Madeline and explores how carefully chosen words and pictures create a character readers never forget.

A one-of-a-kind session combining storytelling and sports. Through writing activities, team-building games, and conversation with Longwood athletes, students explore overcoming obstacles, finding their voices, and the ways reading and sports can build confidence, character, and community.

Join the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts for a hands-on drawing workshop. Guests work alongside children's book illustrators to help create a collaborative drawing stretching more than 60 feet long.

Students tackle a fictional neighborhood crisis and work together to find a solution while discovering how authors use community, conflict, and character choices to build suspense and tell a story.

How can two moments in history speak to one another? Elana shares how authors use research, imagination, and emotional truth to build worlds that transcend time and help readers better understand both the past and the present.

If you could only pack five things that tell your story, what would you choose? Ruth explores how ordinary objects become powerful because of the memories and stories attached to them.

Join Selina Alko as she introduces students to Judy Blume and invites them to discover the power of telling their own stories and asking the questions that matter to them.

Space missions don't always go according to plan. Students experience the kind of problem-solving that powers successful missions as they analyze information, collaborate under pressure, and make critical decisions with limited time and incomplete data.