New York Times bestselling middle-grade author and local resident James Ponti is known for such series as City Spies and The Sherlock Society.
Jerry Craft is the Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Award-winning author and illustrator of graphic novels New Kid and Class Act.
Kate Messner is an award-winning author of the picture-book nature series that began with Over and Under the Snow and the middle-grade book The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z.
Courtesy the Artists
The Florida Children’s Book Festival will make its entrance at Orlando’s Loch Haven Cultural Park as the first of its kind in the state and one of only a few such child-centered book festivals in the country. It’s being presented through a partnership between 100-year-old Orlando Family Stage and 11-year-old Writer’s Block Bookstore.
It seems to be a match made in heaven. OFS and Writer’s Block Bookstore have a “shared belief in the power of stories to bring families together,” says Lauren Zimmerman, owner of Writer’s Block, a plucky independent bookstore with roots deepening in the community and retail locations in Winter Park and Winter Garden.
The book festival will run Friday, Saturday and Sunday, February 20, 21 and 22, with author talks, book signings, live readings, stage performances and more. The exact schedule of events had not been finalized at press time.
Some two dozen children’s book authors are expected, half of them from Florida. Friday has been designated Teacher Appreciation Day and will include sessions addressing literacy and classroom engagement.
Over OFS’s long history, including eight iterations and name changes since 1925, almost 90 percent of its plays have been drawn from children’s literature, says Chris Brown, the theater’s executive director.
And thanks to its Target Family Theatre Festival that began in 2007 and was produced annually over the course of several summers, OFS has experience producing major crowd-pleasing events. Brown says the collaboration with Writer’s Block grew out of a casual conversation.
“Lauren and I were talking one day and she said, ‘I hate that we don’t have a children’s book festival in Florida,’” recalls Brown. “We realized that we have this beautiful park and decided to do the festival, have it spill out into the park and to include our arts partners over time.”
The three-day event is an intentional celebration of books and reading at a time when there’s contention over what books are appropriate for children and when reading test scores haven’t recovered since the pandemic.
Zimmerman says that she’s grateful for OFS’s willingness to envision the festival on a meaningful scale. She notes: “OFS embraced the festival in every aspect—creative, logistical, planning, digital presence and making the festival a priority.”
Highlights of the event will include two productions from OFS’s centennial season. Book characters jump from the pages in Tiara’s Hat Parade, a play adapted from a 2020 picture book by Kelly Starling Lyons, and Lilly and the Pirates, a musical adapted from a 2010 middle-grade book by Phyllis Root.
Tiara’s Hat Parade, commissioned by OFS in partnership with four out-of-state children’s theaters, tells the story of an African American mother and daughter and their family’s hat shop. In Lilly and the Pirates, an adventuresome 10-year-old heroine sets off over the sea to save her shipwrecked parents and meets up with a wacky band of pirates.
Admission to these productions will be free during the festival, but both have longer regular runs in February and March with tickets available for purchase. Lyons will be at the festival although Root’s attendance hadn’t yet been confirmed.
Among the Florida authors confirmed is James Ponti, a New York Times bestselling middle-grade author and Orlando resident known for such book series as City Spies and The Sherlock Society, and Jerry Craft, the Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Award-winning author/illustrator of the graphic novels New Kid and Class Act.
“A thriving and sustaining children’s book festival is an incredible gift for a community,” says Ponti, who has participated in such festivals out of state. “It takes hard work and time, and I’m so excited that Central Florida is taking this step. I can’t wait to be a part of it.”
Also attending will be Kate Messner, an award-winning author of the picture-book nature series that began with Over and Under the Snow and the middle-grade book The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z., which snared the E.B. White Read Aloud Medal. Messner, who lives in Vermont along Lake Champlain, was a TV reporter and English teacher before becoming a kid-lit luminary.
“Children, who are very aware of these authors, come into the bookstore asking for their series,” says Liz Fleming, general manager and buyer for Writer’s Block. “To the kids, they’re celebrities. While the festival is for everyone and meant to be family-focused, the heart of it is giving kids the chance to meet and connect with the people who make the stories they love.”
Sometimes, says Brown, OFS tells stories and sometimes it educates. But it always seeks the fuller development of its young audience members. Theater, he adds, is just the tool by which OFS accomplishes its mission.
“I think what’s going to come out at the end of February is going to be really special and something we continue to do for a long time,” notes Brown. “I think it helps us be more important in the world. We’re not just here to do shows and plays. We are here to make kids love books and reading.”
Orlando Family Stage is located at 1001 East Princeton Street, Orlando, in Loch Haven Cultural Park. For more information, call 407.896.7365 or visit orlandofamilystage.com.
