Our first meeting on October 11th, will feature author and speaker, JOANNE STEWART WETZEL.

JoAnne will be speaking on writing and illustrating very young picture books. For seven years she ran the Traveling Storytime, a program at the Redwood City Public Library that sends volunteers to day care sites to give storytimes to preschool children. To make sure the volunteers had a collection of books guaranteed to succeed with their very young audiences, she field-tested hundreds of picture books by reading them to children, from infants to five-year-olds. In the process, she identified a number of recurring characteristics in the best books for this age group. Her talk will focus on these common elements, and how you as a writer or illustrator can incorporate them into your work.

JoAnne's writing for children includes THE CHRISTMAS BOX (Alfred A. Knopf), which was listed as one of the best books for children published in 1992 by Bank Street College of Education, and ONSTAGE/BACKSTAGE (Carolrhoda Books), which she wrote and illustrated with Caryn Huberman Yacowitz. Her writing for children also includes content for "Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego (Broderbund) and the California State Automobile Association's web page and CD ROM, "The Otto Club."
Her poetry; for children has been included in two anthologies published by Scholastic. She teaches a popular course on writing children's picture books at Bay Area Community colleges. She has spoken at the California Library Association Conference, the Jack London Writing Conference, and gave a workshop on writing very young picture books at the 2008 Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Golden Gate Conference at Asilomar.

JoAnne was a Children's Librarian at the Redwood City Library and served for three years as the Regional Advisor for the San Francisco and South Chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

LOCATION:
The Redwood City Public Library, 1044 Middlefield Road, Redwood City.

The Community Room accommodates disabilities and there is an elevator that will take you up.

COST:
A $5.00 donation is requested at the door. Registration is not required.

TIME:
1:30 -3:30

DIRECTIONS:
280 From San Francisco North
Take Woodside 84 exit. Continue till Middlefield Rd. Turn left onto Middlefield.
The library is on the corner of Jefferson and Middlefield. Public Parking is on the left of the building.

280 From San Jose and South
Exit at Woodside Rd. Continue on Woodside till you come to Middlefield. Turn left onto Middlefield. Public parking is at the left side of the building.

101 From San Francisco and North:
Coming from the north on 101 take the exit toward Whipple Ave/Redwood City. Stay straight to go onto Veterans Blvd.
Turn right onto Jefferson Ave.
Turn left onto Middlefield. Library is on corner of Jefferson and Middlefield.
Public parking is available next to the library.

101 From San Jose and South
Take Woodside exit (84). Continue on 84 till you come to Middlefield. Turn right on Middlefield. Library is on the corner of Middlefield and Jefferson. Public parking is available on the side.

The Redwood City CalTrain stop is less than a 5 minute walk away.
From the Redwood City CalTrain stop, walk East (toward the Bay, away from the hills) through the parking lot to Middlefield Rd. Turn right on Middlefield.
Cross Jefferson at the light. The big building on the right hand side of the road is the library.

Questions? Contact Joli: josallen2@comcast.net