TRAVERSE CITY — The Traverse City Children’s Book Festival will return to the City Opera House on Saturday.
Admission to the Traverse City Children’s Book Festival is free, and it runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. All proceeds benefit local children’s literacy initiatives. After celebrating 10 years in 2019, organizers say the festival was not held for two years until it could return safely for all the families who attend.
This year, the Traverse City Children’s Book Festival team has teamed up with Traverse City Tourism to bring back the free event that features arts and crafts hosted by area nonprofits, as well as live entertainment from Old Town Playhouse Young Company and storytelling with Parallel 45, and many more surprise guests. Also featured are award-winning authors from Traverse City and around the country. Authors will be on hand to sign and sell their books.
“Monty from the Pit Spitters (baseball team) will be here when we open the doors to help kick things off, so there will be an opportunity for kids to get their pictures taken with him,” said festival director Amy Shamroe.
Old Time Playhouse Young Company will do select features from their Holiday Cabaret show, and Parallel 45, will be doing interactive storytelling.
“They’ll be down on the ground with the kids and kind of telling their stories, and the kids interact with them,” Shamroe said. “It’s a lot of action and movement for the kids — we don’t have them just sitting there — we have them being able to move a little and interact with the storytellers.”
Traverse City resident Claire Lepine said her family has attended the Book Festival in the past, and hope to make it to this year’s event.
“I think it’s something really unique,” Lepine said of the Children’s Book Festival. “There’s lots of great kids’ programming in the area, but I love that this is focused on books and reading. It’s that time of the year where you can’t be outside all the time – between sunshine and winter – and it’s just a really diverse, fun day.
“There’s arts and crafts, there’s usually some sort of live production. There’s all sorts of books for sale — it’s a great way to get some ideas for Christmas, which is nice.
“One year they had all of these vintage slides, and old reel-to-reel type of films,” said Lepine. “They (showed) ‘In the Night Kitchen,’ by Maurice Sendak, which was so cool, it’s a really rare film. The East Bay Library has this large collection of these really rare films and it was so cool to see this story that we read for years, that I read when I was a child, and my son, Archie (who is now 9 years old), loved it.
“And getting to see it on a big screen, with words and music, everyone loved it.”
Sendak (1928-2012), who was a writer and illustrator, authored several children’s books, including the massively popular, “Where the Wild Things Are.”
Lepine said she and her family have attended three Children’s Book Festivals in the past, and that they hope to go again this year.
“We have it on our calendar,” she said. “I don’t want to say it’s like ‘old-school fun,’ but you’re in such a cool building that’s so historic to Traverse City — the Opera House — it feels so fancy.
“But then you get to do all these fun, kid-based (activities). We love to read — reading is so important — and so any avenue that is another way to get books in front of kids, we’re happy to support. It’s magical when you see your kid sitting down and reading a book, you’re so proud and you’re so excited for them”
In past years, the event has drawn several hundred area residents, young and old alike, said Shamroe.
“We’re going to have some people from the playhouse showing up as some of the kids’ favorite fictional characters — princesses, heroes from stories, and more,” she said.
“We here at the Jenkins Group put on the Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards and so we host a ceremony for them. The authors that are going to be featured, almost all of them, are the winners of the children’s book award and they will be coming from around the country.
“It’s a really great event — really unique books, excellent quality books — and they’ll have everything from children’s books, to young adult books (and more). It’s a wide range of book offerings. We just want everybody to just find what they love and be able to enjoy their reading.
Shamroe said staff of Traverse City Brilliant Books will “… come in to feature some popular titles and holiday books just so people can do a little one-stop shopping while they have entertainment for their kids.”
“It’s a wonderful event that allows everyone to experience our opera house in a different way,” said Shamroe. “It’s a great venue. It’s a really fun afternoon. Over the years we’ve had anywhere from 500 to 1,000 people show up throughout the whole course of the day.”
Shamroe said event organizers will partner with the TBA Credit Union to give out coupons (while they last) they call Book Bucks that can be used to purchase books throughout the four-hour event.
“When you walk through the door, whether it’s a little toddler who’s being carried, or grandpa and grandma and mom and dad, everybody gets a Book Buck that they’ll spend like actual dollars,” she said. “So, a family of four comes in we’re going to give them four Book Bucks and they can be used toward the purchase of any book inside. We do that to help families out a little.”
“We are so excited to once again offer a free day of family fun celebrating children’s literacy and the magic of books,” said Shamroe. “Thanks to sponsors and the support of the community, we can pick up where we were after celebrating 10 years and keep this tradition going for years to come.”
Information and updates can be found at www.TCBookFest.com or on Facebook or Instagram at @TCBookFest
