StoryFest – Middle Grades That Matter

Three authors discuss their middle-grade stories, each written with honesty and meaning in true-to-life fiction.

In Dionna L. Mann’s Mama’s Chicken and Dumplings, a ten-year-old girl living in segregated, 1930s Charlottesville is determined to find a man for her mother—but Mama’s own mind keeps getting in the way.

The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Story, winner of the 2025 National Book Award, follows a brother, Babak, and his little sister, orphaned in 1940s Iran, a neutral country full of British soldiers and Nazi spies. Babak’s plan to become a teacher is thrown into jeopardy when the siblings meet a Jewish boy in hiding — and so too is the trio’s very survival.

Allan Wolf’s The Vanishing of Lake Peigneur: A Graphic Novel Based on a True Story is about a Louisiana lake that, well, vanished — flushing fish, boats, barges, and even an oil rig down a whirlpool. The lake itself knows the story of the oil industry that caused this catastrophe.

CharlottesvilleFamily is proud to sponsor this event! Search for other StoryFest events in the schedule.