Someday, no doubt, someone will write a book about the Tucson Festival of Books. When that day comes, here is a suggestion for Chapter 1:
Use big, picture-book type β¦ short, easy-to-read sentences β¦ some bright, colorful drawings β¦ and begin where every festival begins: with the annual Storybook Parade.
This yearβs Tucson Festival of Books will be March 9-10 at the University of Arizona, and the first event on Day 1 will again be the parade, a loud, joyful procession of kids who will wind their way through the festival grounds to the Children, Teens and Young Adult area surrounding the College of Education.
The festival cannot begin until the children get there, and why would it?
Tucson has become one of the largest, most significant gatherings in all of childrenβs literature.
Just ask Adam Rex, a picture-book author and illustrator who will be appearing in his 14th hometown book festival.
βWhen you see the list of authors who are coming, you know this is a big, big deal,β Rex said. βR.L. Stine? Kate DiCamillo? These people are as big as they come in childrenβs literature. But weβll have dozens of other great authors, too, and kids will be right in the middle of it all. I donβt think itβs just bias that makes me say I like our festival the best of all the ones I do.β
Stine will introduce his new Goosebumps series, βHouse of Shivers.β DiCamillo will launch her latest bestseller, βFerris,β which will release four days before the festival begins.
Bob Odenkirk and his daughter, Erin, will be here with βZilot & Other Important Rhymes.β
Rap star Vashti Harrison was a finalist for the 2023 National Book Award in Young Peopleβs Literature with βBig.β
LeUyen Pham and Gene Luen Yang created the award-winning graphic novel, βLunar New Year Love Story.β
Rebecca Bach-Lauritsen and Anna Margrethe Kjaergaard, who authored βOut of the Blue,β are coming from Denmark.
βEvery year I try to pop in and see someone Iβve read or read about, and every year my list gets longer,β said Rex. βThereβs just no way I can see everybody I want to see.β
By the end of book festival weekend, there will be kids saying that, too.
The Children, Teens and Young Adult program will feature 68 authors in more than 100 sessions, games and activities.
Around them will be a constant swirl of chattering children who may bump into author Lori Alexander when flying around one corner and a costumed Clifford the Big Red Dog rounding the next. That, Rex said, is what sets Tucson apart.
βAt a lot of book events, Iβll look out into the audience, and the only people Iβll see are adults; librarians, teachers, parents β¦ I wonβt see any children at all. Here in Tucson, Iβll see lots of kids. Sooner or later, Iβll probably be sitting on a quilt, reading with them.β
Book festival weekend will include author carousels where children and teens meet seven or eight authors during a single session.
There will be Story Blankets where authors read to small children sitting on quilts.
There will be studio sessions for young illustrators and opportunities for young adults to discuss books about young adults.
Interestingly, these were somewhat new when UA Professor Kathy Short agreed to organize the childrenβs program for the first book festival in 2009.
βBack then,β she recalls, βwe went to conferences where adults would talk with other adults about books for children. The first time I went to a book festival, in Los Angeles, the authors were all onstage in a large hall, trying to entertain the audience.β
Short, who still manages the Children, Teens and Young Adult area today, wanted Tucson to feel more like Tucson.
βWe wanted authors who would interact with kids,β she said. βOur goal was to make children into readers. When youβve met the author and talked to them, when youβve heard them read their book, you never read them the same way again. So thatβs where we wanted to start.β
For the second year of the festival, the headliner was Joy Harjo. For the fourth event, it was Stine. By 2015, publishers were lining up to send their own top authors to Tucson.
The program has been growing ever since, with sessions now offered for teachers, artists and emerging authors of books for children.
βWe have so many audiences now you never know who you might see,β Short said.
Still, at its heart, the festival is kidsβ stuff, and authors such as Rex canβt wait.
βFor me, the book festival is this shining star I look to every year, a time to catch up with all the friends I see once a year β¦ in Tucson. I hope itβs that way for readers, too. Itβs their chance to connect with this weird stranger who means so much to them because they happen to love the stories he writes. It will be great to see them all again.β
FOOTNOTES
If you and your own kids would like to be part of this yearβs Storybook Parade, come to the UA Bookstore before 9 a.m. on Saturday, March 9. Mariachi and an assortment of costumed characters from the pages of childrenβs literature will begin the procession at 9.
The University of Arizona will formally celebrate Kathy Shortβs appointment as a regents professor on Wednesday, Feb. 28. Now in her 35th year with the College of Education, Short is director of the World of Words Center there. She also heads the widely acclaimed Children and Young Adults area at the Tucson Festival of Books. The Arizona Board of Regents confirmed Shortβs appointment last spring.
Poet Matthew Zapruder will read from his latest collection, βStory of a Poem,β Thursday, Feb. 29, at the UA Poetry Center, 1508 E. Helen Street. The program will begin at 7 p.m.