Welcome Summer 2026 with Sarah Baker

Sarah Baker, Executive Director of SCBWI, leads our virtual conference welcome this morning. Sarah began her career in children’s book publishing at Penguin Young Readers Group as a designer. Her debut illustrated picture book, Becca & Bubbe's Bucket List, written by Laura Gehl came out this May.

Sarah reminds us this conference is for anyone and everyone interesting in making books for kids and young adults, and this year's virtual format again lets even more people tune in from all over the world. Based on live polling, the makeup of attendees is over 60% pre-published, and over 60% writers.

Sarah gives a shout out to this year's conference materials illustrator, Heegyum Kim.

And invites us to remember two great names in children's literature we lost this year, Mildred Pitts Walter and Jane Yolen.

If you want to follow along with the rest of the conference, register at https://www.scbwi.org/events/virtual-summer-conference-2026. Replays of the conferences will be available after the conference for a limited time.

Conference art by Heegyum Kim