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The Order of Oddfish

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90-Second Newbery: Portland Screening, March 3, 2012!

November 23, 2011

Good news! We are bringing the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival to Portland, Oregon on March 3, 2012! The screening will be at the Central Library (801 S.W. 10th Ave.) from 3-5 pm. Thanks to the Multnomah County Library System!

I’ll be bringing the “best of the best” from the screenings we’ve already done in New York City (Betsy Bird’s recap here) and Chicago (my recap here), and mixing them with entries I hope to receive from the Portland area in the next few months. Plus live Newbery-themed entertainment between the films, cabaret-style! The deadline for entries to the Portland screening is February 13, 2012. You can find complete rules and details about the contest here.

I’ve already received two great videos from the Portland area: Laurelhurst School’s tough-to-top version of The Witch of Blackbird Pond (see above) and Alice McKee-Smith & Co.’s spot-on adaptation of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

And hey, aren’t many Beverly Cleary books set in a thinly veiled Portland? Ramona Quimby, Age 8 won a Newbery Honor in 1982 and Ramona and Her Father won a Newbery Honor in 1978. These definitely need to be done by Portlanders!

Indeed, the Pacific Northwest already has a strong showing: there’s this irresistibly charming Charlotte’s Web from Bainbridge Island and another one of my favorites, a brisk, droll The Giver from Tacoma:

While I’m in the Portland area, I’ll also be doing author visits and programs at the Capitol Hill Library, Rockwood Library, Northwest Library, Kenton Library, Troutdale Library, and Fairview-Columbia Library. See my events page for details.

A final bit of good news: the 90-Second Newbery is now a program under the Kidlit Foundation, an Illinois nonprofit dedicated to “bolstering literacy in preschool and grade school children.” I’ll still be running the film festival, of course; this just enables us to raise money and expand the program.

See you in Portland in March!