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, President of the CLCD Company, 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. More recently, 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 that offers more than 1,000,000 MARC records and 300,000 reviews of children’s materials, 400,000 entries for awards and 155,000 author/illustrator links—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.

Sheilah Egan became a school librarian in 1969, delighting in sharing her own love of reading with students in preK through 7th grade. Reading aloud was a continuing part of her life as she raised four children. As a volunteer with Scouting programs, Sunday schools, and at a variety of private and public schools in Northern Virginia she remained involved with children and books. Even though she has retired from A Likely Story Children’s Bookstore (where she was the manager and “Story Lady” for 21 years), she is still committed to exposing children to the joys of reading. She gives presentations for parents and children as well as speaking to teacher training classes and in-service programs for established teachers, all of which allow her to keep a finger on the pulse of children’s literature. Mrs. Egan is the Mid-Atlantic Sales Representative for The Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database. She also served as President and on the board of the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association. Her membership in The Children’s Book Guild of Washington, DC is another way she stays connected to the authors and illustrators who create the books she loves so dearly.

Naomi Milliner has been a book-lover ever since she can remember. In keeping with her passion, she earned a Bachelor’s Degree in English at the University of Maryland, which included classes in Playwriting and Short Story Writing. Still in love with books and writing, but uncertain what to do about it, Naomi then went across the country to receive an MFA in Screenwriting from the University of Southern California, where she also met her husband. After working at Twentieth Century Fox and other studios as everything from a reader (what a surprise) to script typist to development assistant to writer’s assistant, she put her glorious career on hold to have her first child… then moved back again to Maryland. Her first child is now a high school senior (hoping to attend the University of Maryland!), and her second is well into middle school. When her kids were still in elementary school, Naomi began and ran a spelling bee for 6 years, and also led a journalism club. As an active member of SCBWI for almost 15 years, Naomi finally made the “write” decision, by pouring her love of reading, and writing, into children’s books… including writing reviews for childrenslit.com since meeting Marilyn at a conference several years ago. Naomi is now the Program and Events Coordinator for Children's Literature.

   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.