Festival History
Founded in 1996, the Plum Creek Children’s Literacy Festival seeks to encourage a love of reading, writing, and books by bringing nationally renowned authors and illustrators to Nebraska. The festival started as a one day, one author event, with about 200 adults and children present. Since then, it has grown to three days of presentations, with ten authors and illustrators in 2014. Since 2013, over 10,000 children and adults attend the festival each year. It currently includes sessions for elementary, middle-level and secondary students as well as adults.
The Plum Creek Children's Literacy Festival won the Jane Pope Geske award given by The Nebraska Center for the Book for exceptional literary contributions in 2007. In 2010, it became a Read Aloud Nebraska Champion.
Past Featured Authors and Illustrators
| 1996 | Janet Stevens |
| 1997 | William Anderson |
| 1998 | Ruth Heller, Shirley Climo |
| 1999 | Emily Arnold McCully, Ivy Ruckman, Chris Demarest, David Harrison |
| 2000 | Paul O. Zelinsky, Denise Fleming, Patricia Calvert, Caroline Arnold |
| 2001 | Will Hobbs, Cheryl Harness, Helen Lester, Teri Sloat |
| 2002 | EB Lewis, Jim Aylesworth, Mary Downing Hahn, Sneed Collard III, Sandy Asher |
| 2003 | Brod Bagert, Lisa Campbell Ernst, June Rae Wood, Susan Campbell Bartoletti, Brad Sneed |
| 2004 | Steven Kellogg, Patricia McKissack, Ben Mikaelsen, Jerry Pallotta |
| 2005 | Janet Stevens, Susan Stevens Crummel, Pam Muñoz Ryan, Elisa Carbone, W. Nikola-Lisa and Stephen Swinburne |
| 2006 | Ted Kooser (U.S. Poet Laureate), Tedd Arnold, Joseph Bruchac, Patricia Reilly Giff, Nikki Grimes, and Ashley Wolff. Marc Brown at the Endowment Dinner. |
| 2007 | Andrew Clements, Ted & Betsy Lewin, Peg Kehret, Robin Brickman, and Richard Peck. Laura Numeroff at the Endowment Dinner. |
| 2008 | Cynthia DeFelice, Gail Gibbons, Mo Willems, Mike Graf, Joan Bauer, and Hans Wilhelm. Lois Lowry at the Endowment Dinner. |
| 2009 | John Archambault, David Biedrzycki, John Erickson, Carmen Deedy, Shelley Gill, Gordon Korman, and Preston McDaniels. Authors Readers Theater: Avi, Sarah Weeks, Richard Peck and Pam Muñoz Ryan at the Endowment Dinner. |
| 2010 | Ashley Bryan, Alyssa Capucilli, Dan Gutman, Ralph Masiello, Patricia Polacco, Pat Schories, and Sarah Weeks. Carmen Deedy & John McCutcheon at the Endowment Dinner. |
| 2011 | Eileen Christelow, Bill Harley, Grace Lin, Brian Pinkney, Barbara Robinson, Roland Smith and DyAnne DiSalvo. Jerry Pinkney at the Endowment Dinner. |
| 2012 | R.W. and Zoe Alley, Jarrett Kosoczka, Tom Lichtenheld, Andrea Pinkney, Ted Scheu, Gary Schmidt, and Clare Vanderpool. David Wiesner at the Adult Conference. |
| 2013 | Anna Dewdney, Candace Fleming, Marla Frazee, Barbara McClintock, Marc Tyler Nobleman, Eric Rohmann, Judy Schachner, and Neal Shusterman. Kevin Henkes at the Adult Conference. |
| 2014 |
Nick Bruel, Floyd Cooper, Jack Gantos, J. Patrick Lewis, Brian Lies, Dandi Mackall, Jim Murphy, Steve Jenkins, and Jeff Kurrus. Rosemary Wells at the Adult Conference. |
| 2015 |
Andrew Clements, Carmen Deedy, Denise Fleming, Eric Litwin, Peter Lourie, Jerry Pallotta, Janet Stevens. Richard Peck at the Adult Conference. Special SKYPE session with Tomie dePaola. Special tour event on December 8 with Jan Brett. |
| 2016 |
Peter Brown, David Carter, Matt de la Pena, Brian Floca, Loren Long, Linda Sue Park, Trent Reedy, Aaron Reynolds, Bob Shea, Salina Yoon. Louis Sachar and Sara Pennypacker at the Adult Conference. |