Celebration of Authors is sponsored by WINTRUST BANK
Purchase Tickets!
It’s both our annual gala AND a family-friendly, interactive festival!
Silent Auction! Games! Food + Drinks! Open Bar for adult guests! 360 Photo Booth! And of course, LIVE performances of stories written by our students for the 2024/25 School Year!
Attire: Fancy Schmancy where you can come Fancy – dressed to the nines in your best attire. Or you can come Schmancy – with a silly hat or funny outfit that expresses YOU!
You can bid on our amazing Silent Auction Prizes at the event, or remotely from anywhere! Silent Auction items include: A Trip to Mexico with Vidanta Resorts, A Sailing Excursion, An At-Home Dungeons & Dragons Session, Dining Packages, Sports Tickets, Theatre Tickets, and MORE! Stay tuned for a preview and get those bids ready!
This is the most affordable & most FUN Gala in town!
Tickets include food, drinks, a show, and activities for all ages!
Adult Regular Priced Tickets —$75
Youth Regular Price Tickets, ages 4 to 15 —$50
Children 3 years of age and under can attend for FREE
Mary Winn Heider is the author of over 30 books for kids, including THE LOSERS AT THE CENTER OF THE GALAXY, THE UNICORNS WHO SAVED CHRISTMAS, and THE STUPENDOUS SWITCHEROO series, which she co-created with Chad Sell. Mary Winn’s very first novel, THE MORTIFICATION OF FOVEA MUNSON, was based on her time working in a real life cadaver lab, and now that it’s a musical. In a School Library Journal column a few years ago, Betsy Bird wrote, “In an era of information overload, Mary Winn Heider is the author who will lead us through the pandemonium into the light.” Mary Winn’s books have been on state lists, appeared on Bank Street Best Books, received Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection status, been long-listed for the Edgar Award, and landed on Indies Introduce and Indie Next lists.But before all of that, Mary Winn was a company member with Playmakers Lab, where she spent a decade pretending to be a chicken, an astronaut, and a princess, and sometimes, all three at once.
This event is a fundraiser to support PML’s outstanding creative writing programming in partnership with Chicago Public Schools. 100% of the tickets proceeds will support PML classes! For 28 years PlayMakers Laboratory has served Chicago Public School students by providing a creative writing residency program aimed primarily at elementary schools. Our company of over 60 teaching artists utilize creative drama and storytelling to promote literacy and self esteem during our in-school residencies and park district programming. Each year, our programs serve more than 4,000 young people across Chicago. In our 6 week writing residencies, a whopping 88% of students improve writing scores by at least one level over the course of our residencies. Plus, 100% of classroom teachers report that our program supports their student’s writing and improves confidence and self-esteem.
By Tania, Christian S., Fernando, Alexis, Gerardo, Giovanni, Andres, Little Village
Superheroes
One day in Chicago there was a superhero who was very strong and had heat vision. His name is Supervision and the villain is Electric Man and they fight. They are fighting because Electric Man wants to rule the world and Supervision wants to stop him. If Electric Man ruled the world there would be a lot of chaos-there would be fighting, stealing, and people would be bad. Supervision is happy and wants other people to be happy, too. Supervision will defeat Electric man by his muscles. The people start running and acting bad. Supervision teaches people to behave again, by using mind control. The people behave good; they will not run anymore, and they walk normal. When Supervision won he still had to defeat Can-Stealing Monkey Girl…
By Marisol, Ana, Eugenio, Mavin, Luis, Isidro, Ruben, Little Village
Once upon a time there was a penguin with a beak. He likes to live in the cold. His name is Pedro. He had a fish in his mouth; he was saving it for dinner. He hid the fish and went to get another one. The fish, named Alberto, tries to escape because he doesn’t want to get eaten. Then a lobster came by. Alberto says, “Help!” But the lobster says, “No, I won’t help you because I need to go and rest.” The fish escapes on his own, and the penguin, not finding the fish, says, “Oh! One day I’ll find you, fish!” The lobster feels bad for the fish, so he goes back to help him, but the fish is gone, so the lobster is mad, and says, “Next time, I won’t help him!” The fish hides in the lobster’s house. The lobster says, “Get out of my house before I pinch you!” The fish left and he lost his way home but found a bag of gold, and a magic river that helped him find his way home.
By Gus, Elena, Charlie, Regina, Samuel, Marcelino, Anthony, Little Village
Superheroes
There’s a kid, Alex, riding his bike down the street. Suddenly a dog named Michael comes up to him and starts talking. He says, “There are hunters trying to hurt me!” Michael is scared. Alex says, “Dogs can’t talk!” Then a hunter shows up with a sniper rifle. Alex thinks that he’s in a dream, but he’s not. The dog, Michael, runs away. Alex follows him on his bicycle. The hunter goes after the dog and Alex. The hunter wants to keep the dog all for himself. All three travel millions of miles to the jungle. Then the Super Paper Plate arrives to save Michael from the hunter. Super Paper Plate flies down and grabs Michael, but he forgets Alex, and a puma attacks him. The hunter shoots the puma, and Alex is okay. Alex says thank you to the hunter. The puma wasn’t dead. He was just asleep. Alex says, “Why did you save me?” The hunter says, “You were in danger. That dog was dangerous!”
By Yahir M., Claudia, Julia, Joselyn, Fernando, Alexis, Pedro, Little Village
The doctors are putting babies on a man’s (Jason’s) face. They don’t know they are putting the babies on is face, and the man is making a face and thinking, “What are they doing?” The doctors are trying to figure out how two babies work on a man’s face. Later the man discovered that babies are growing on his face! Jason sees himself, and he think that he is ugly-a monster! Jason is mad at the doctor for rubbing the babies on his face. He wraps his face so that people don’t see that he is a monster. All of a sudden he grew babies on his body, so he wraps his body up, too! An eagle sees him and wonders why he is so wrapped up. Jason tells the eagle and helps him become a normal guy. The eagle takes the babies off, so Jason bleeds badly, out of circles. So Jason takes care of the babies and died when he was very old!
By Viancy, Addy, Ana, Isidro, Alex, Jose, Little Village
A family was going to see their mom. They are happy. They are going to play in the yard. Their mom is at a football field-they hug her. Their mom is a football player. She is also the coach. Mom is happy because her team will win a big competition coming up. Her family is sad because she didn’t come home, because she was practicing football. They come to see her at the field and hug her and say, “Where you been all the time?” “I couldn’t come home because I was so busy.” The mom goes home-but what about the game? The football team calls the mom for help, and she explains it on the phone. The team won! The mom is happy. The mom doesn’t want to play football, but one of her kids becomes the new coach!
By Isela, Estefania, Brandon, Danny M, Marcelino, Jose D, Giselle, Ashley, Little Village
There were bugs in the windows. Their names are Brandon, Estefania, and Isela. Brandon and Estefania are hungry and want to eat Isela. She runs away. But they catch up with her! Brandon says, “After her!” Isela escapes and Brandon and Estefania say “We won’t share this home with you!” Isela wanted to run away, so she went to the basement and saw some people packing things. A woman named Giselle said, “These candies will sell like hotcakes!” There was a girl Ashley, she sees bugs in her candy factory and tries to kill her with a box. The other workers say “No more bugs in our factory! Because there’s food-they might get in the boxes!” Isla sneaks in a box, and gets shipped away and escapes. But the people who find bugs in their candy are mad and ask for their money back.
By Ariel B., Henderson School
Arguments
That's Weird, Grandma
I believe that when kids or grown ups are tired of carrying papers up and down the stairs that we need a paper slider to take the papers up and down the stairs. My first reason is that we need a paper slider is because like if the teacher has to carry a box and a pack of paper down the stairs just to say five things, that’s wasting all that teacher’s time. My second reason is that if a teacher has to tell kids to stop yelling, and pass out lunch passes, and hold paper, one teacher cannot do all this stuff at the same time! My final reason that we should have a paper slider is that she’s trying to talk to the principal about something and her paper keeps dropping. And that’s everything about how to have a paper slider.
By Diavian P., Henderson School
True Stories
That's Weird, Grandma
I went to a splash party. We got out of the pool and we ate cheetos. I put the bag under my pillow and fell asleep and I felt something under my pillow. It was a cheeto tiger. My cousin didn’t see it. He thought I was lying. I went home and I took the cheeto tiger with me. He was stripy. We went to sleep. When I woke up he was still there. We went to the park. I told people he was my pet. I told them that I loved my pet tiger and I would never give him up. The end.
By Darrius, Shareef P., Kobe M., Xarria N., and Isiah S., Henderson School
That's Weird, Grandma
Noodles was a policeman. He liked to wear girl’s clothes. Every day he ate dead dogs for breakfast. He drank cows’ blood. His neighbors were not happy. They were scared. Sally worked at the bank. She wanted to put a stop to Noodles. She told him to stop eating nasty food. Instead, she gave him sandwiches, mac-n-cheese, and chicken noodle soup. The sandwiches were okay. The mac-n-cheese was a little burnt. That chicken soup was delicious. He felt very good and happy and changed his name to Charlie Jackson.
By Corey W., Henderson School
Once upon a time there was a clock named Mary. The clock had an experiment (that) made her (into) a woman.
