Events

In Search of Middle Grade Mysteries

Put your detective caps on for this intriguing panel, featuring middle grade books with a mysterious twist! Shafaq Khan’s Zeyna Lost and Found follows a British-Pakistani aspiring detective in London, whose overactive imagination regularly gets her in trouble because she believes there is mystery and intrigue everywhere… until there is a mystery at the shops. Set in another shop run by a survivor of the Titanic, where Colette secretly works, Nikki Shannon Smith’s Deep Secrets: A Titanic Novel weaves between the Great Depression and a journey aboard the Titanic as Colette uncovers the mystery surrounding her father’s death as a Black factory worker. Tracy Badua adds a hint of magic to the mystery in Thea and the Mischief Makers, a story about a pair of grumpy duwendes—Filipino goblins—who threaten to wreak havoc on Thea’s neighborhood and her chance at a fresh start as the cool girl at Junior Stunt Warrior summer camp! Helping us to moderate this panel and close the case is the knowledgeable Sharon Levin, who has been reviewing children’s and YA literature for over 30 years.

Event date: Saturday, May 30
Event time: 1:30pm-2:15pm
Location: Berkeley Public Library, Teen Room
Audiences: middle grade, Tween and Up
Themes: Fiction, Mystery/Crime/Thrillers, Youthlit
Booksales: Hicklebee’s Bookstore, Inc., on the 1st floor near the Teen room

More about the 2026 Bay Area Book Festival here.

The San Diego County Fair is the greatest story our community has ever told. It’s a tale of food, fun, friends, family, laughter, tradition, music, amazement, and pure, unbridled joy. The Fair — the largest and longest-running community event in San Diego County — makes its triumphant return from Wednesday, June 10, through Sunday, July 5, 2026.

This year’s theme is, Once Upon a Fair, a celebration of stories where books are larger than life and words and artwork leap off the pages. The 2026 San Diego County Fair invites fairgoers of all ages to explore the world of books through educational exhibits, hands-on exploration, and community engagement

Catch Tracy Badua onstage Wednesday, June 10, Opening Day of the 2026 San Diego County Fair. Join the fun before 5 pm and you’ll get in for only $5!

Roundtable: Empowering Filipino American Voices in Fiction: Resources for New and Emerging Creatives with Celeste Dador, Mia P. Manansala, and Tracy Badua

About: The FANHS conference forms a national home for students, scholars, community leaders, artists, and healers. The space opens pathways for shared research, storytelling, and cultural memory. Emerging scholars and students enter this home with new questions, new narratives, and new visions for Filipino American history.

PiNoise merges “Pinoy” and “noise” and is pronounced “pea-noise.” It was originally used in 1998 as the name of an annual Filipino pop music festival in San Francisco. We are using it now to say that we are gathering to make noise. And Filipino traditions have many examples of what that sounds like–not only in music, but in laughter, story-telling, and ritual. We are making noise as Filipino Americans and FANHS, here–in the nation’s capital for the first time–and now, recognizing the moment we are in as a nation.

Monuments to Change is a nod to the landscape around us. But it also recognizes how Filipino Americans have remade American history. Monuments literally cement dominant narratives in place, narratives that extol American heroism at the expense of Filipinos. But through scholarship, organizing and community action, we have successfully changed monuments and added new layers of meaning. Each effort opens space for fuller histories and deeper understanding

To learn more and register, click here.