Authors, kids on the same page

“Supernatural Rubber Chicken.” “Smile, Principessa!” “How to Draw a Cartoon Fish.”

The options were myriad, but children at the 22nd Authors Festival reception at the Huntington Beach Library on Tuesday still managed to find something fun to bring home.

The reception, in which about 30 local authors met with and autographed books for kids, ended with an award ceremony for the library’s Time Warp Contest, in which area kids were honored for their outstanding writing and drawing skills.

One of the youngest winners was kindergartner Emma Guard.

“She writes all the time — page after page after page,” Emma’s grandmother Sue Foshee said.

Emma’s story about an unlikely friendship between a girl and a robot won her an outstanding writing and illustration award.

“She’s a dream student,” her teacher Debbie Andrews said. “If we start cloning people, we should clone Emma.”

Earlier in the day and week, the authors went to each participating school to read to and talk with kids.

“It brings reading alive for kids,” said Gail Page of the Friends of the Children’s Library.

Page said organizers began to worry that the event was getting too stale after seeing attendance decline last year, but they were assured by the community and the authors that it was a local jewel.

The process begins in May, when the Friends group asks schools to participate. Over the summer, they make arrangements for the author visits, and a November “lottery” process matches authors with schools.

New schools like Carden Academy have begun to participate in the program, which also has attracted new authors.

Molly Peckels, whose coloring book “See into the Sea” teaches kids about tide pool awareness, recently joined a small Huntington-based press called Toe the Line, which was created by editor Dawne Knobbe and writer/illustrator Svetlana Strickland. Knobbe and Strickland were two of the founders of the Sand Scribes Children’s Writing Group, from which many of the authors at Tuesday’s event knew each other.

Ruth and David Elliott, whose nonprofit Edu Designs publishes and distributes bilingual books and DVDs, turned their previous careers in animation and the music industry into an opportunity to reach the youth they used to entertain.

They say their art textbook, “See What You’re Looking At,” is the first such text to reference the California Math Standards.

Other books like “Night Princess” are written in English and Spanish on each page.

The festival was made possible through a grant from Boeing’s Employees Community Fund; the local Barnes & Noble store brought a selection of the authors’ books to sell, and the Orange County Society for Calligraphy created elegant bookmarks inscribed with each child’s name for $1 each.

‘FRIENDS’

There once was a little girl and she went to the library. When she got inside she met a robot! Then they became friends. Then the girl asked the robot, “Are you nice?” “Yes I am nice.” Then the robot asked the girl, “Are you nice?” “Yes I am nice, too.” Hip Hip Hooray! Then they sat down and they read heaps of books. They read “Just Like Daddy” and “Rub Dub Sub.” Then they went to get their library cards with their mom and dad. They got good pictures! The End.

— By Emma Guard, 6, Kindergarten, Sts. Simon and Jude School

CANDICE BAKER can be reached at (714) 966-4631 or at candice.baker@latimes.com.