Monmouth County Library Book Fair special guest: Tara Lazar

The title came first for Tara Lazar, as she wrote her popular picture book The Monstore.

“I love wordplay of all types, quips and puns and making up words, so one day I smooshed monster and store together and came up with Monstore and thought – what a great concept, a place you can go to buy a monster,” Lazar said.

That’s exactly what Lazar’s character Zack needs – a place to procure a scary monster to frighten his pesky little sister Gracie. Only what he gets from The Monstore doesn’t faze Gracie in the least. And the Monstore doesn’t do returns or refunds…

Come to the Monmouth County Library’s 2014 Children’s Book Fair on Saturday, March 22 at Library Headquarters in Manalapan to meet Tara Lazar and find out more about Zack, Gracie and The Monstore!

The book fair will run from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 22. There will be sessions with Lazar as she reads aloud from The Monstore, and a limited number of  books will be available for purchase and personalized signing by the author.

Lazar lives in Somerset County with her husband and their two daughters, ages 7 and 11.

“My kids have been going to the library since they were tiny – I would take them to all the baby storytimes and read to them every night,” Lazar said. “Plus they grew up seeing me read all the time.

“Now my older daughter, if we have to go somewhere and she knows there’s some waiting involved, she brings a book. Not a tablet or a computer, but an actual print book. And that’s very satisfying, to know you’ve passed on that love of reading.”

While Lazar understands the attraction of the new eBook technology, she favors print books and the personal touch of reading aloud.

“When you read to your children, they are interacting with you, not the computer. You can talk to your child about the story, answer questions,’’ Lazar said. “To me, the iPad apps for children are just a distraction. They get in the way of parents making that connection with their children over the story they are reading together.”

Lazar has three more picture books in the works: I Thought This Was a Bear Book, to be published in September 2014; Little Red Gliding Hood, due out in October 2015; and 7 Ate 9, due out in  2016.. The Monstore was illustrated by James Burks.

She also was one of the authors contributing to Break These Rules: 35 Young Adult Authors on Speaking Up, Standing Out, and Being Yourself, which was published last year.

Lazar is also the creator of PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month) as the picture book writer’s answer to NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). PiBoIdMo is held every November on her blog Writing for Kids While Raising Them at taralazar.com. In 2013, PiBoIdMo featured 1,150 participants and over 100,000 web hits.