In early November, twenty-nine incredible authors and illustrators joined Texas Book Festival for our Reading Rock Stars program in 9 Title 1 schools in the Austin area. Every student in our partner schools had the opportunity to be a part of this exciting day focused on the joys of reading, writing, drawing, and storytelling and went home with their very own copy of a featured book. During Reading Rock Stars presentations, authors and illustrators shared their stories, talked about their craft, and interacted with their young audiences in a variety of creative and engaging ways. During their visits, it was not unusual to see an illustrator co-creating art with kids or to catch an author leading students through a lively discussion as they came up with a new story together.
With generous donations from our sponsors, Texas Book Festival funds and coordinates Reading Rock Stars author visits and provides copies of visiting authors’ books to children and to their school’s library. Since the program began, Texas Book Festival has provided more than 150,000 books to students and hosted more than 600 author visits. Reading Rock Stars is currently partnered with schools in Austin, Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, the Rio Grande Valley, and will be expanding to El Paso in 2023.
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Donations help to fund our Reading Rock Stars and Real Reads outreach programs in Title I schools, support our Texas public library grants program, and help keep our annual Festival free for all!