The night began with Newbery Award winning author, Kwame Alexander stepping up to the mic to introduce James Patterson, a best selling author with more than 300 million books in print for children and adults.
Kwame Alexander introducing James Patterson
James Patterson started things off by getting laughs about not wanting to follow Kwame speaking, seeing a woman pocketing his book in an airport shop (and wondering if that still counted as a sale), and his moment in the spotlight on the Simpsons.
But he wanted more than just laughs from the audience. He wanted everyone, especially those who stand at the gates, “to please be very, very careful with those gates”. Along with creating books that inform children, he wants us to remember to create books that children will not only love, but that “when a kid finishes a book, they should say: ‘please give me another book’.”
He reminded us that millions of kids have never read a book that they enjoy, and we need to change that. For him, children not reading is a life or death problem and that we need to create books that will get them to read, and that is his ultimate goal with Jimmy Patterson Books, an imprint at Little, Brown and Company.
Because as he says, “[we will lose] millions of kids every year if we don’t address the reading crisis.” To him, it is a problem that we can do something about. “We can do something that saves lives.” He believes “the future of the country is getting kids to read.”
He went on to thank all the #GoldenKiteAwards winners and closed by reminding us, “Clear eyes. Full heart.”
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