Walter M. Mayes advocates for children and books across the country as a writer, storyteller, seminar presenter, and lecturer on various topics all expanding on his professional motto: "Love, food, clothing, shelter...BOOKS!" Librarian at The Girls' Middle School in Palo Alto, CA, Walter has served multiple times as a judge for the LA Times Book Prize, as well as the Michael Printz Award, Margaret A. Edwards Award, the Odyssey Award, and the William C. Morris Award. He is the author of WALTER THE GIANT STORYTELLER'S GIANT BOOK OF GIANT STORIES and co-author of VALERIE & WALTER'S BEST BOOKS FOR CHILDREN with San Jose bookseller Valerie Lewis. A professional storyteller and actor who has appeared in dozens of plays and musicals around the Bay Area, Walter has recorded books on tape, performed on spoken word and musical recordings, and is the first recipient of the Coleen Salley Storytelling Award from Southern Mississippi University. Proud owner of a first edition of HARRY POTTER & THE SORCERER’S STONE (inscribed thusly: “To Walter, or as I prefer to think of him, the red Hagrid. Love, J K Rowling”), Walter’s association with Hagrid began when Scholastic Publishers hired him to appear and read as Hogwarts’ Keeper of the Keys and Grounds at the 1998 New York is Book Country celebration. A regular feature at Potter publication parties and gatherings over the years, Walter has appeared as Hagrid on CNN, been written up in the New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle, and published professionally on the topic of the Harry Potter books and their effect on children’s publishing.