Established in 1919, Children’s Book Week is the longest-running literacy initiative in the country and it’s this week! Each year, books for young people and the joy of reading are celebrated with author and illustrator appearances, storytelling, parties, and other events at schools, libraries, bookstores, museums, and homes.

Children’s Book Week highlights include…

• Events in over 40 cities across the U.S.
• Special 2012 Book Week bookmark designed by Lane Smith (download here) and poster designed by David Wiesner (order here…try to spot all the fun characters!)
• Children’s Choice Book Award winners announced…the only national book awards program where winners are selected by children and teens! See the finalists and winners list here.

Administered by Every Child A Reader and sponsored by the Children’s Book Council, Children’s Book Week celebrates the transformative power of literacy.

Their website has lots more ways to join the fun. How are you celebrating?

Thank you for all the great support for our Draw KeeKee Kontest Illustrator Contest and for helping us spread the word!

We received over 40 entries from around the world… featuring amazing talent! The time, love, and effort that has gone into the submissions is terrific! Thank you to all the talented illustrators that submitted! We’ll be in touch within the week.

Our next steps are to narrow down to our favorite styles… and… select which artists we plan to commission for the next round.

Keep visiting here to track the progress and see which of the talented illustrators becomes KeeKee’s Big Illustrator! >^..^<

As I mentioned in my last post, Friskies launched a new free iPad game for cats, You vs Cats.

After downloading and playing, I still prefer Cat Fishing. My sister Luna, on the other paw, is LOVING the new game. Check out her action on the video (Luna loves Cats vs People!) … she’s going to town! And clearly helping keep the cats in the lead on the World-Wide Leaderboard.

Friskies launched a new free iPad game for cats. I’ve personally had fun with Cat Fishing. But THIS one takes it to a whole new level…cats against humans!

You vs. Cat is the first game designed for one person and one cat. The gamer with the fastest paws, or fingers, wins! Download it here.

Friskies is also keeping score through the You vs. Cat World-Wide Leaderboard. Currently cats are winning!!

Stay tuned…mom and dad are downloading it for us! >^..^<

Imagine a world where everyone can read. Pam Allyn believes in it and formed the non-profit LitWorld to promote global literacy. Today it’s estimated over 793 million people remain illiterate. LitWorld’s mission is to use the power of story to cultivate literacy skills in the world’s most vulnerable children through Education, Advocacy and Innovation.

Tomorrow we can all celebrate the great cause on World Read Aloud Day! There are many ways to get involved! Make sure you join the support here, look for local events or at least read aloud to a child. You can also participate on Twitter with #readaloud.

I wish I was going to be in NYC at my favorite bookstore Books of Wonder for the BIG event including Clifford the Big Red Dog! But I’ll have to settle for Twitter and the live Facebook chat from The Scholastic Store. >^..^<

Thank you for creating one of my favorites cats, the one in the hat! >^..^<

This weekend, my mom is in New York City sharing the manuscript we wrote about the time I traveled to Paris in my balloon.

We think this will be the first book in the series about my big adventures!

I’ll update you when she returns from her trip.

>^..^<