September 23, 2010 Fun and Fascination Abound at the 10th Annual National Book Festival
Contact: Matt Raymond (202) 707-1099
A plethora of fascinating activities will be offered by the organizations sponsoring the 10th Annual National Book Festival, celebrating “A Decade of Words and Wonder.” Visitors to the festival -- adults and children alike -- will find many and varied activities to stimulate their imaginations and creativity.
The National Book Festival will take place on the National Mall between 3rd and 7th Streets on Saturday, Sept. 25, 2010. The event, free and open to the public, will run from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., rain or shine.
President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, the First Lady, are the honorary chairs of the event.
In the Let’s Read America II pavilion, Target will offer new activities this year. Target invites all festival-goers to send “Mail from the Mall” to locations anywhere in the world. Using ingenious photographic technology, visitors can insert themselves into several postcard images and then send them to friends and family using postage featuring the Target mascot, Bullseye the dog. The post boxes will be available right in the pavilion.
In the Let’s Read America I pavilion, AT&T invites visitors to join Dipper, the AT&T Cares star; the Library of Congress Federal Credit Union will offer bingo with the friends of “Sammy the Saver” Rabbit, who offers tips for developing good saving habits. In that pavilion, Penguin Group (USA) will give festival-goers a chance to have their photos taken with its mascot, the Penguin, and invite children to enjoy storytime tales and try out the new online reading site “We Give Books,” which lets kids put books in the hands of other children who don’t have them. ReadAloud.org will offer authors David Baldacci, Brad Meltzer, Mem Fox and Jennifer Liu Bryan reading aloud with the ReadAloud.org mascot, Hilda the spokesgoat. Scholastic Books will let fans of books sign the We Believe Wall or make a video statement about one’s belief in every child’s right to read in the 21st century. Several of the Let’s Read America I sponsors also will offer kids the chance to work on craft projects.
In the PBS KIDS Raising Readers pavilion, there will be several activities in which kids can immerse themselves in the world of learning. Children can sing along with PBS KIDS’ SteveSongs, join Miss Rosa and other PBS friends for storytime, or pose for a photo with many favorite PBS KIDS characters including Abby Cadabby, Alpha Pig, Arthur, The Cat in the Hat, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Curious George, Princess Presto, Super Why! and Wordgirl.
The 2010 National Book Festival poster, by renowned illustrator Peter Ferguson, can be downloaded from the festival website at www.loc.gov/bookfest/. Copies of the poster will also be distributed free to festival-goers. CSPAN2 will provide free book-bags for visitors to the festival.
Authors and illustrators scheduled to participate in the National Book Festival will make their presentations in the Children, Teens & Children, Fiction & Mystery, Poetry & Prose, History & Biography and Contemporary Life pavilions.
- Children: Mary Brigid Barrett, Timothy Basil Ering, Jules Feiffer, Mem Fox, Margaret Peterson Haddix, Norton Juster, Pat Mora, Marilyn Nelson, Linda Sue Park, Jerry Pinkney, James Ransome, Judith Viorst and Rosemary Wells
- Teens & Children: M.T. Anderson, Michael Buckley, Suzanne Collins, Margarita Engle, Peter Ferguson, Phillip M. Hoose, Brad Meltzer, Katherine Paterson, Jane Smiley, Jeff Smith and Rebecca Stead
- Fiction & Mystery: Isabel Allende, Ken Follett, Diana Gabaldon, Julia Glass, Martha Grimes, Elizabeth Kostova, Anchee Min, Karin Slaughter, Scott Spencer, Peter Straub and Scott Turow
- Poetry & Prose: Elizabeth Alexander, Rae Armantrout, Jonathan Franzen, Gail Godwin, Allegra Goodman, Chang-rae Lee, Thomas Mallon, Orhan Pamuk, Jane Smiley and Natasha Trethewey
- History & Biography: Adele Logan Alexander, Timothy Egan, Jules Feiffer, Wil Haygood, David E. Hoffman, Richard Holmes, James McGrath Morris, Nell Irvin Painter, David Remnick, Steven V. Roberts, Stacy Schiff, Evan Thomas and Gordon S. Wood
- Contemporary Life: Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, Gurcharan Das, Ree Drummond, Bruce Feiler, Jonathan Safran Foer, Spike Mendelsohn, Michele Norris, Richard Rhodes, Henry Petroski, Craig Robinson, Anita Silvey, Harold Varmus and Edward O. Wilson.
The 2010 National Book Festival is made possible through the generous support of Co-Chairman, National Book Festival Board David M. Rubenstein; Charter Sponsors Target and The Washington Post; Patrons, AT&T, Institute of Museum and Library Services, The James Madison Council, the National Endowment for the Arts and PBS KIDS Raising Readers; Contributors, Borders, Digital Bookmobile powered by OverDrive, Penguin Group (USA), ReadAloud.org, Scholastic Inc., and the Library of Congress Federal Credit Union; and Friends the Marshall B. Coyne Foundation, The Hay-Adams and National Endowment for the Humanities. Thanks also to C-SPAN2’s Book TV and The Junior League of Washington.
The Library of Congress, the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution, is the world’s preeminent reservoir of knowledge, providing unparalleled collections and integrated resources to Congress and the American people. Many of the Library’s rich resources can be accessed through its website at www.loc.gov and via interactive exhibitions on a personalized website at myLOC.gov.
###
PR 10-214
2010-09-24
ISSN 0731-3527