BYU is celebrating its 22nd annual Symposium on Books for Young Readers at Provo City Library, where teachers, librarians and parents gathered on Thursday and will gather today to hear award-winning authors and illustrators discuss their experience in children’s literature.  

“The symposium started initially as an effort to promote nonfiction literature,” said Marsha Broadway, the juvenile literature librarian at the Harold B. Lee Library since 1993. “About 15 years ago, we started including picture books and fiction.”

Every year, the organizers invite five to seven authors and illustrators to speak to between 400 and 450 attendees who come from around the country.

This year, authors Susan Campbell Bartoletti, Gennifer Choldenko, Jessica Day George and Linda Sue Park and illustrators Brett Helquist and Jerry Pinkney presented their experiences in children’s literature. 

“Sometimes when you have a dream … there are people who tell you ‘no,’” Bartoletti said in her presentation on Thursday morning. She has published 14 books.

Bartoletti encouraged audience members who aspire to write to “research to the edges.”

“[The symposium] has helped me to become a better teacher and writer,” said Hollyann Rogerson, of Orem, who has taught elementary school since 1995. “When you write, you find out more about yourself.”

Sylvia Williams, of Woodland Hills, who has been an elementary school librarian for six years, came to the symposium looking for new books to order for the library. 

“[Children are] always looking for something new, the latest series,” Williams said. “Children need to feel confident about their ability to read a book. If they can read one, maybe they then read another, and then they’ve got the reading bug.”

Don Frampton, of Fillmore, is a retired electrical engineer who worked at the BYU physical plant and attended the symposium with his wife and granddaughter. Frampton shared how exposure to literature has impacted his grandchildren.

“In my little granddaughters it’s created a desire to read and learn,” he said.

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