Image: tucsonfestivalofbooks.org
A mind-blowing amount of fun is coming, so start a fab family tradition with a day or two at the Tucson Festival of Books (TFOB), the largest book festival in the state! Most of the fun is free, and Bear Essential News will be there, too!
The University of Arizona will be ABUZZ the weekend of March 9–10. Meet a culturally diverse bunch of authors and illustrators, enjoy live performances including a literary circus, and wander the Children’s Area and Science City for hands-on activities, including a scavenger hunt! Authors and illustrators will be signing their books, speaking on panels and sharing their new releases.
A dedicated crew organizes this bookfest, which is celebrating its 15th year and attracts more than 100,000 excited guests. “We’re just finalizing a few details here and there, but everything is coming together really well,” says Kathy Short, co-chairperson of the festival’s child/teen author committee.
Short is thrilled about this year’s authors and illustrators, including R.L. Stine of Goosebumps fame and Kate DiCamillo. “She’s very well-known in the field and has won the Newbery several times,” Short points out. “But this is her first visit to the festival, and she’s coming because she has a brand new book that’s being released!” The book is called “Ferris.”
Vashti Harrison and her picture book “Big” have been in the news lately. “That particular picture book was a Finalist for the National Book Award for young people.
For it to be a picture book is a big deal, and then on Monday it was named as the Caldecott Medal winner!” Short shares. The Caldecott honors the most distinguished American picture book published in the previous year. “It’s just an incredible picture book in terms of its design, in terms of her use of color and perspective, in terms of the message—showing the ways in which words can be harmful to children,” she continues. Some panels and workshops require advance reservations—the earlier you sign up, the better. On Saturday at 4 p.m. is the popular Middle Grade Carousel, where entertaining authors rotate between tables to talk to youngsters. And on Sunday at 4, to close out TFOB, will be On Your Mark, Get Set, Draw!, hosted by local author and illustrator Adam Rex.
Bear Essential will have the TFOB kids schedule and more in its March issue. To register for certain panels or workshops, go to tucsonfestivalofbooks.org and explore under the Children’s & Teens tab.
Millennium Camera to Capture Changes
A research associate at the University of Arizona has developed a camera that will spend the next 1,000 years taking a photograph on Tumamoc Hill in Tucson.
The device, known as the Millennium Camera, was created by Jonathon Keats, an experimental philosopher and research associate at the University of Arizona College of Fine Arts.
There is not a conventional camera that could accomplish Keats’ goal of taking a 1,000-year exposure, and there was concern that humans in the future might not have the same technology as us to process an image.
Keats developed a camera with a pin-sized hole in a thin sheet of 24-karat gold, which will allow light to slip into a small copper cylinder mounted atop a steel pole. Over 10 centuries, sunlight reflected from Tucson's landscape will slowly fade a light-sensitive surface coated in many thin layers of an oil paint pigment. The goal is that when people open the camera in 1,000 years, they will see an extremely long exposure image of Tucson.
“One thousand years is a long time and there are so many reasons why this might not work,” Keats said. “The camera might not even be around in a millennium. There are forces of nature and decisions people make, whether administrative or criminal, that could result in the camera not lasting.”
While Keats recognizes the possibility that the MILLENNIUM Camera may not last, he is hopeful that it will inspire people who pass by to imagine what the future will hold and to take action to shape the future.
Keats has plans to install at least one more camera on Tumamoc Hill, and he hopes to install cameras around the world. In May, a Millennium Camera will be installed in the Austrian Alps. After that, Keats is planning to install one in China and one in Los Angeles.
“This project depends on doing this in many places all over the world,” Keats said. “I hope this leads to a planetary process of reimagining planet Earth for future generations.”
