Booking Service - The Principals

   Children's Literature brings considerable expertise to teachers, media specialists and PTA personnel in selecting and handling the details of an author/illustrator event. A brief introduction to the individuals who will comprise this service is provided below.

Marilyn Courtot is a librarian with an M.S. in Library Science from The Catholic University of America and a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Maryland. Since 1993 Ms. Courtot has been the owner of Children’s Literature, a service that for a decade provided a print newsletter featuring the best in children’s literature. In 1999, Ms. Courtot was instrumental in forming a sister organization, The Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database Company (CLCD) which has taken the reviews from Children’s Literature and augmented them with the reviews of 35 additional review media to provide an Internet-based acquisition, research, and reference service—all full text searchable. Its subscribers include schools, libraries, colleges, publishers and booksellers. In addition, for the last ten years Ms. Courtot has worked with local schools, libraries and conferences to identify authors for speaking engagements and manages book sales at these events. She has also served on various children’s literature awards committees and is a member of numerous organizations among which are Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, The Children’s Book Guild of Washington DC, American Library Association, and the Association of Booksellers for Children.

Emily Q. Griffin of Emily Q. Griffin & Associates serves as the Publicity and Marketing Director for Children's Literature. In this capacity she manages the author/illustrator booking service, processes reviews, represents the company at various conferences and events, and provides monthly website updates. She has a B.A. in English from George Mason University. During college she was the manager at a local independent children's bookstore, A Likely Story, where she realized she could turn her love of children's literature into a career. She studied abroad in London twice; while there she worked at Peter Owen Publishers, creating sales and marketing material, reading submissions, maintaining the website and blog, and attending the London Book Fair. She also did a summer editorial internship program at Candlewick Press in Boston. There she read submissions and proofread material such as proof pages and flap copy. Emily is a member of the United States Board on Books for Young People, The Women's National Book Association, and reviews books for Children's Literature. Among her other clients is Children's Literature Comprehensive Database (CLCD) for whom she also handles publicity and marketing.

   We are committed to working with you to make your visiting author or illustrator events go smoothly. We also will endeavor to provide books for an autographing session should you decide to include one. Our goal is to make your event a memorable one.