CLiF has served over 350,000 children since 1998.
Rural Library Conference
Every other year, CLiF offers its Rural Library Conference – a FREE learning opportunity – for librarians who work in small communities across VT and NH. We also welcome anyone connected to libraries of any size, interested in literacy, educators, and/or serving children and youth in VT or NH. Our virtual learning series is an opportunity for librarians to learn from each other, gain practical ideas on programming, and inspiration to try new things. Join us for Breanna McDaniel and Megan Dowd Lambert’s keynote, attend a single workshop, or take advantage of all four sessions of free professional development!
Date: November 13, 2025
Cost: FREE
Registration: RLconference2025.eventbrite.com
Pre-registration will be required. **No same-day registrations will be permitted.**
KEYNOTE: THE WHOLE BOOK APPROACH IN 2025
9-10AM
Authors Megan Dowd Lambert and Breanna McDaniel return to CLiF for an online program applying Lambert’s Whole Book Approach to favorite titles published in 2025. Drawing on the expanded 10th anniversary edition of Lambert’s book Reading Picture Books with Children: How to Shake Up Storytime and Get Kids Talking About What They See, they will offer tips and tools for storytimes and for book talks to inspire readers of all ages.
Megan Dowd Lambert is the creator of The Whole Book Approach storytime model, which she developed in association with The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. After working as an educator at The Carle for over a decade, she held contract faculty appointments in Children’s Literature at Simmons University until 2020. She won an Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Honor for her first picture book, A Crow of His Own, illustrated by David Hyde Costello (Charlesbridge 2015), and is the author of many other children’s books, including the Every Day with April & Mae early reader series, illustrated by Briana Dengoue and Gisela Bohórquez (Charlesbridge 2022, 2023). Megan’s books for adults include Reading Picture Books with Children: How to Shake Up Storytime and Get Kids Talking About What They See (Charlesbridge 2015); Book Bonding: Building Connections Through Family Reading , illustrated by Mia Saine (Charlesbridge 2023); and Read It Again: 70 Whole Book Approach Plans to Help You Shake Up Storytime (White Poppy Press, 2023). The mother of seven children, Megan grew up in Vermont and now lives with her family in western Massachusetts. Readers can find her online at www.megandowdlambert.com and www.modernmemoirs.com.
Dr. Breanna J. McDaniel (she/her/hers) is an emerging creative and recovering scholar. She’s published in myriad academic journals, an academic anthology, and her debut picture book Hands Up! was published with Dial Books in 2019. She is also the author of other picture books, including Atlanta, My Home and Impossible Moon which was published with Denene Millner Books/ Simon and Schuster.
Her newest book Go Forth and Tell: The Life of August Baker, Librarian and Master Storyteller, was published February 6, 2024 and has received the 2025 Ezra Jack Keats Writer award and the 2025 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor. Her fifth picture book Cute Toot was published in April 2024 and she also has two more picture books with Henry Holt Books for Young Readers at Macmillan.
Breanna is the co-founder of REIYL and completed her PhD at a university in the UK and looked at surveillance in representations of Black children as food. As an activist she is engaged in thinking through access to different types of literacy for families from the Global Majority and she’s adamant about promoting the work and connections of children’s book creators from those communities too. www.breannajmcdaniel.com
WORKSHOP BREAKOUTS
With Leanne Porter, Program Manager at Vermont Humanities
In this workshop, we will discuss ways to bring literacy alive and make it hands-on for children and families. This method encourages autonomy in children’s interactions with books and materials in order to hypothesize and manipulate them beyond storytime. It allows for ongoing reflection by children, parents, and librarians to continue to connect deeply to books and stories.
In this workshop, we will discuss ways to bring literacy alive and make it hands-on for children and families. This method encourages autonomy in children’s interactions with books and materials in order to hypothesize and manipulate them beyond storytime. It allows for ongoing reflection by children, parents, and librarians to continue to connect deeply to books and stories.
With Susie Spikol, Author and CLiF Presenter
Join Susie Spikol, naturalist at the Harris Center for Conservation Education and author of Forest Magic for Kids and The Book of Fairies as she shares ideas, books, and activities to start a Wild Scientist Book Club at your library. Based on her after school club and summer program at the Jaffrey Public Library, Susie will share how to bring the wild to your library, get kids reading books, and have real hands-on STEAM experiences.
Join Susie Spikol, naturalist at the Harris Center for Conservation Education and author of Forest Magic for Kids and The Book of Fairies as she shares ideas, books, and activities to start a Wild Scientist Book Club at your library. Based on her after school club and summer program at the Jaffrey Public Library, Susie will share how to bring the wild to your library, get kids reading books, and have real hands-on STEAM experiences.
Ruth Shattuck Bernstein, Director of the New Haven Community Library in New Haven, VT
Caroline Pynes, Director of the Chichester Town Library in Chichester, NH
Danielle Hinton, Director of the Oscar Foss Memorial Library in Center Barnstead, NH
Looking for ways to engage with youth during the afterschool & out-of-school time hours? Eager to bring kids and families in the door? Learn from a panel of youth librarians and consider new and different ways to connect with kids through your library’s programming.
Caroline Pynes, Director of the Chichester Town Library in Chichester, NH
Danielle Hinton, Director of the Oscar Foss Memorial Library in Center Barnstead, NH
Looking for ways to engage with youth during the afterschool & out-of-school time hours? Eager to bring kids and families in the door? Learn from a panel of youth librarians and consider new and different ways to connect with kids through your library’s programming.
Stick around for a chance to win new books for your library from CLiF!!!