BENTONVILLE -- The Public Library will present the city's inaugural Youth Literature Festival on May 2.
The free, one-day, two-location festival will connect readers of all ages with 13 regional authors and illustrators of children's and youth literature. It will also feature workshops, Free Comic Book Day, the Summer Reading Club kickoff and a special presentation by Storybook Strings, a string quartet that creates original musical interpretations of popular literature.
Youth Literature Festival
Participating authors and illustrators at Bentonville’s inaugural Youth Literature Festival on May 2 include:
• Karen Akins - author
• Mary Casanova - author*
• Henry Cole - author/illustrator*
• Rich Davis - illustrator
• Sean Fitzgibbon - graphic novelist
• Cheryl Harness - author/illustrator*
• Ard Hoyt - illustrator*
• E.B. Lewis - illustrator*
• Kashmira Sheth - author*
• Obert Skye - author*
• Marie Smith - author*
• Roland Smith - author*
• Janet S. Wong - author*
*Denotes those who will present at the Community Center. The others will present at the library’s main branch on Main Street.
Source: Bentonville Public Library
Ten of the authors and illustrators will speak in classroom-style settings at the Bentonville Community Center, said Sue Ann Pekel, children's librarian and event organizer.
"We are very, very grateful to be one of the first big events at that wonderful facility," she said of the Community Center. "With the partnership with the Parks and Rec team, we're able to really do what we feel is going to be an awesome premier event for our community."
The Community Center at 1101 S.W. Citizens Circle will officially open June 6. The library will have a mini branch at the center.
Literary festivals like this are a great opportunity for youth to meet and connect with authors and illustrators, said Roland Smith, author of more than 40 books and 25 novels.
Smith, and his wife, Marie, will be two of the authors who will present at the Community Center. They author picture books together.
Young people are able to see that those who write and illustrate books are real, normal people, and it allows them to believe that it's something they could do, Smith said.
"The first author I ever met was me," Smith said. "I never got the chance to meet an author."
It would have made a huge impact had he had the chance, he said.
"We're not different than anybody else," he said, explaining that's a powerful thing for youth to understand.
"It's a tremendous opportunity for kids and parents for this many authors to be in one place," Smith said of the event.
There will be many drop-in, family friendly events at the library's main branch at 405 S. Main St. throughout the day May 2.
The Summer Reading Club kickoff theme will be "Every Hero Has A Story." There's a regional and national trend to start summer reading clubs sooner to ease the transition to continue reading from in the school year into the summer, Pekel said.
The kickoff will include a superhero training camp, sidewalk chalk art, crafts and a superhero costume contest, according to a news release.
Graphic novelist Sean Fitzgibbon will present and hold a writing workshop to celebrate Free Comic Book Day, an international event that takes place the first Saturday in May. The free comic book giveaway will begin at 10 a.m., and a raffle will be held at 4 p.m., according to the release.
Other featured events at the main library will include a writing workshop by young adult author Karen Akins, a Draw Your Own Comic workshop by children's book illustrator Rich Davis and a presentation of Henry Cole's Jack's Garden by Trike Theatre's Dramatic Book Club, according to the release.
Registration will be required for the author and illustrator presentations at the Community Center as well as the workshops at the library's main branch. It can be done by clicking on the event on the calendar on www.bentonvillelibrary.org.
Participants must be in the first grade or higher to attend presentations at the Community Center, the release states. Children and adults are welcome. Registration will be limited to two presentations.
There will be two sets of presentations in the morning as well as the afternoon. There will be a book signing open to the public from 2 to 3 p.m., according to the festival schedule.
Mary Casanova, author of 31 books, will be another author to present at the Community Center. Some of her picture books, like Utterly Otterly Day and One-Dog Canoe, were illustrated by Ard Hoyt, who also will speak at the festival.
"A festival like this that celebrates books and literature is an absolutely fantastic way to get kids excited about reading and writing their own stories," Casanova said. "It's a celebration of books and those that create them and inspires kids to do their best writing possible."
The festival will also be recognized as an official event to kick off this year's Children's Book Week that is nationally celebrated May 4-10. Children's Book Week was established in 1919 and is the longest-running national literacy initiative in the country, according to the news release.
The Bentonville Youth Literature Festival is free and is supported by grants, private donations and in-kind contributions and sponsorships.
NW News on 03/30/2015