2026
Bookmarks Festival of Books and Authors Bookmarks Festival of Books and Authors
Some book events are about looking for your next book, while others are about meeting the people who make those books possible. Bookmarks Festival of Books & Authors brings both together, creating a place where readers can meet writers, listen to their stories, and enjoy books with other people who love them. The festival has become the largest annual book festival in the Carolinas, welcoming more than 30,000 attendees each year and bringing together authors from different parts of the country.
The value of the festival comes from the simple connection between readers and authors. With talks, discussions, signings, and events for different ages, Bookmarks gives people a chance to experience books in a more personal way. The 2026 festival is also bringing well-known voices such as John Green for its opening keynote and Jodi Picoult for its closing keynote, giving readers even more reasons to come together around stories.
For Kravitz and Sons, being part of a celebration like this means more than simply putting books on display. It means giving our authors and their stories another chance to meet readers who may be looking for something new.
And speaking of stories worth discovering, Our Mom Has Cancer by Danielle Waters brings a very personal idea to the festival. The book looks at cancer through a child’s eyes, using a mother’s courage and words of wisdom to help make a difficult subject feel a little less scary. It is a short children’s book built around love, family, courage, and the need to talk about something that can be hard for children to understand. As we take a closer look at the book, it is also the perfect time to learn about the mother and writer who turned her own experience into a story for other families.
A Mother Who Turned Fear Into Words
Some stories begin because an author simply wants to write. Others begin because life gives them something they feel they need to share. For Danielle Waters, Our Mom Has Cancer comes from a much more personal place. She is a mother of two daughters, a wife, and a woman who has been fighting breast cancer herself. Her own family has also been touched by the disease, with her mother having cancer twice and her father passing away from cancer.
That experience helped shape the reason behind this book. Waters wanted to create something that could help children understand the word “cancer” without immediately feeling overwhelmed by fear. Her writing is simple and direct, focusing on the kind of words a child can understand. Instead of making the subject harder than it already is, she tries to bring courage and comfort into the conversation. Her daughters are also an important part of her life, and she enjoys creating art, writing stories, and playing with them.
Our Mom Has Cancer was released in 2025 and is listed as a 30-page children’s book published by RoseDog Books. The book has also appeared in major online booksellers and was included in the 2025 Sharjah International Book Fair online catalog, giving the title another place to reach readers outside its original publication.
When a Child Needs Someone to Explain
Cancer can be a difficult word even for adults, so imagine being a child and hearing it without really knowing what it means. That is where Our Mom Has Cancer begins. Rather than making the story about medical details, Danielle Waters keeps the focus on the emotional side of the experience. The mother becomes the source of courage, helping a child understand that fear is normal but it does not have to control everything.
The main setting is centered around family life, where the relationship between a mother and her children becomes the heart of the book. There is no need for a large cast of characters or a complicated plot because the real story is about a family trying to understand something difficult together. The mother’s role is especially important because she is not only facing cancer herself, but also trying to help her children feel safe while they deal with the changes around them.
The lesson of the book is simple but important. Talking about fear can make it easier to face. Waters shows that children need honest words, love, and reassurance when something serious happens in their family. The book does not try to pretend that cancer is an easy thing. Instead, it gives families a gentle way to start the conversation and reminds young readers that cancer does not erase the love, fun, and everyday moments that still exist.
A Small Book With a Big Heart
Our Mom Has Cancer is a book made for a very specific moment, when a child hears something frightening and needs help understanding it. Danielle Waters takes an experience that has deeply affected her own family and turns it into something that can hopefully help another child feel less alone. For families looking for a gentle starting point for a difficult conversation, this book offers a simple message of love, courage, and hope without making the subject harder than it already is.
Our Mom Has Cancer
A Gentle Story About Courage, Family, and Understanding
Discover a story that helps make a difficult conversation a little easier.