Join us for the 2020 Orion & Mandarin Immersion School Author & Illustrator Fair!
Open to the Community, online, free.
Saturday, November 14, 2020
09:00am – 3:00pm
Orion Alternative & Mandarin Immersion School invites you to the 2020 Author & Illustrator Fair, a family event featuring authors and illustrators of beloved children’s books for all ages. All members of the community are welcome!
This year, due to the pandemic and the event being held online, Starship, the Parent Teacher Organization for the Orion Alternative and Mandarin Immersion Programs, will not take any benefits from the Author/Illustrator Fair book sale proceeds.
Presentations Schedule
Meet our Authors and Illustrators
Oliver Chin has written the Tales from the Chinese Zodiac series, and other books including Welcome to Monster Isle, Julie Black Belt, Timmy and Tammy’s Train of Thought, and The Adventures of WonderBaby. Called “an expert in Pacific Rim pop culture” by the San Jose Mercury News, he lives in San Francisco, CA.
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Todd Parr
Todd Parr is the author and illustrator of more than 50 books for children including the New York Times bestselling The The I Love You Book, The Earth Book, and The Thankful Book. His books have received numerous awards and are available in over eighteen languages throughout the world.
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Gianna Marino
Gianna has written over a dozen award-winning books, including Meet Me at the Moon, Too Tall Houses, Following Papa’s Song, Night Animals, Night Animals Need Sleep Too, If I Had a Horse and she is the New York Times best-selling illustrator of Don’t Let Them Disappear, written by Chelsea Clinton.
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Katie Yamasaki is a muralist and children’s book artist devoted to using art as a platform for dialogue-building and storytelling.
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Heather Kinser
Come meet local author Heather Kinser and her new nonfiction picture book, SMALL MATTERS: The Hidden Power of the Unseen.
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Wendelin Van Draanen
Wendelin Van Draanen spent many years as a classroom teacher and is now a full-time writer. She is the author of many award-winning books, including the Sammy Keyes mysteries, Flipped, Swear to Howdy, Runaway, Confessions of a Serial Kisser, and the Shredderman series.
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Janet Tashjian
Janet Tashjian is a middle-grade and young adult novelist who’s been writing books for children for over two decades. Her first novel Tru Confessions was made into a critically acclaimed Disney TV movie. The Gospel According to Larry series is a cult favorite and Fault Line is taught in many middle and high schools. Her bestselling My Life As a Book series is illustrated by her son, Jake. They also collaborated on the Einstein the Class Hamster series.
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Ji-li Jiang
Ji-li Jiang was born in Shanghai, China. She brought her memories of the Cultural Revolution in China to life in her first book, Red Scarf Girl, which has become required reading in many schools. Following the success of Red Scarf Girl, she published her adaptation of Chinese classic folklore, Magical Monkey King: Mischief in Heaven. Her picture book Red Kite, Blue Kite, illustrated by Greg Ruth, won an Asian/Pacific-American Award for Literature from the ALA.
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Katrina Liu
Katrina Liu is an American-born Chinese mom and author living in San Francisco, California. Her goal is to add more Asian representation into the world of children’s books. She’s written a variety of children’s books including bilingual children’s books in Chinese and English for non-native speakers. When her daughter, Mina, was born, Liu searched for well-illustrated, dual-language children’s books with Pinyin and English, but was surprised at how little she could find.
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Carlos Hernandez
Carlos Hernandez is the author of the Pura Belpré-award winning Sal and Gabi Break the Universe (2019), as well as its sequel, Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe (2020), and the short story collection The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santeria (2016). He is also a CUNY associate professor of English at BMCC and the Graduate Center, as well as a game writer and designer.
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Elisa Kleven
Elisa Kleven is an American children’s writer and illustrator of 30 books. Her titles have been Booklist editor’s choices, and PBS and Rainbow Book selections.
Elisa has written several children’s books including the Paper Princess series, The Puddle Pail and The Lion and the Little Red Bird. Her first book was Ernst, a story about a creative crocodile named Ernst, whose tendency to wonder “what if” mirrors the author’s own.
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Francisco Jiménez
Author and educator, Francisco Jiménez emigrated with his family from Tlaquepaque, Mexico to California and as a child worked alongside his parents in the fields of California. He received his BA from Santa Clara University and an MA and Ph.D. in Latin American literature from Columbia University under a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship.
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Francisco Jiménez
en español
Francisco Jiménez también presentará su libro Cajas de cartón en español.
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Laura Gehl
Laura Gehl is the author of nearly two dozen popular picture books, board books, and early readers. Her books include One Big Pair of Underwear; the Peep and Egg series; My Pillow Keeps Moving; I Got a Chicken for My Birthday ; and Baby Astronaut.
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Leticia Ordaz
Leticia Ordaz is an Emmy-nominated anchor/reporter at KCRA 3 (Sacramento, CA), and has covered some of the biggest stories in the country. She’s excited to share bilingual stories and encourage students to consider careers in broadcast news.
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Jake Tashjian
Jake Tashjian is the illustrator for the My Life As a… series, including My Life As a Ninja and My Life As a YouTuber. Jake also created and illustrated the Einstein the Class Hamster series. He collaborates on his novels with his mother, author Janet Tashjian. He has also illustrated several books for the author P.T. Evans.
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Julie Leung
Julie Leung was raised in the sleepy suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, though it may be more accurate to say she grew up in Oz and came of age in Middle-earth. By day, she is the Marketing Director for Random House’s sci-fi/fantasy imprint, Del Rey Books. By night, she writes to calm the ghosts from the past. In her free time, she enjoys furtively sniffing books at bookstores and winning at obscure board games.
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Edna Ma
Edna Ma is a physician anesthesiologist and mom, who was motivated to write a bilingual Chinese children’s book, inspired by her son’s friendship after he enrolled in a Mandarin immersion school. Although she is not a native speaker of Mandarin, she wanted to read to her children in Mandarin. She found a limited selection of books for this age group. So she created these stories to include English and Mandarin with pinyin, to facilitate different reading levels. Her stories celebrate friendship and cultural diversity.
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Peiju Chan
Peiju is a Taiwanese illustrator with experience in graphic design, children’s book and freelance illustration based in San Francisco. She is always fascinated by kids and animals which many of her inspirations often come from. Her art style is whimsical and playful. Bringing fun and beauty to life is the reason that motivates Peiju draws. She does children’s books and art collections for art licensing; the idea is to make things pretty, playful and exciting.
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