Tucson Festival of Books

2012 Tucson Festival of Books

The 2012 Tucson Festival of Books was attended by roughly 120,000 people on March 10th and 11th. The children’s and adolescent area had a number of exceptional programs. Authors present included R. L. Stine (who graciously signed books for several hours over the two days), Jack Gantos (winner of the 2012 Newbery and Scott O’Dell awards for Dead End in Norvelt), John Sciezka, Kadir Nelson, Matt Tavares, Aprilynne Pike, T. A. Barron, and many, many more.

Look for our April WOW Currents sharing Karen Lynn Williams’ talk on cultural authenticity, Monica Brown and her latest book, Biblioburro, and a panel with Ruta Sepetys, James Deem, and Jewell Parker Rhodes titled Confronting Difficult Life Events Through Story.

The Tucson Festival of Books is non-profit organization run by over 1,500 volunteers and one paid staff person. All proceeds are donated to local Tucson literacy programs. So far, through the 2009-2011 festivals, $500,000 has been contributed to that cause.

View pictures of the festival.

The 2013 Tucson Festival of Books will be held March 9th and 10th, again on the University of Arizona campus.

For perusal, download the 2012 schedule for the children’s area.

Join us March 9-10, 2013 for the third annual Tucson Festival of Books!

WOW: Wishes for the World from the Tucson Festival of Books 2009

Have you ever blown out candles on a birthday to make a wish? What about wishing on a shooting star? Children all around the world make wishes, and so do we. Worlds of Words invited visitors to our 2009 Tucson Festival of Books booth to make wishes for the world. We used Wish: Wishing Traditions Around the World by Roseanne Thong with illustrations by Elisa Kleven to start our conversations. Read our May 2009 WOW Currents to see more wishes. For now, enjoy the video.