Special thanks to Juliette Zygarowicz for this video

A MESSAGE FROM OUR DIRECTORS

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Please join us for a fun and exciting day that is sure to motivate your children to put away their devices and float into a world of imagination and creativity, a world full of beautiful books. We are thrilled to present the 24th annual Rochester Children’s Book Festival on Saturday, November 7th, at MCC. As always, there will be free admission, crafts, and parking. We are especially excited about this year's theme:

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Let's Get Together and Read!

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Our Festival to Go outreach program, coordinated by the incomparable Vivian Vande Velde, brings dozens of RACWI authors and illustrators together with hundreds of Rochester city school students for free presentations. In the past 15 years, nearly 12,000 students at 21 schools have benefited from this program. This year, for the first time ever, we’re hoping to raise enough money to provide a free book to every Festival to Go student. We’re already halfway toward our $15,000 goal! If you would like to help, please print out this pledge form and mail it in. Your gift at any level will truly make a difference.

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 Inspiring a love of reading in children, especially with competition from video games, TV, and social media, the Rochester Children’s Book Festival provides children with an opportunity to meet and speak with their favorite authors. Meeting an author up close and having them personalize a book for you is a huge motivating factor in having a child read that book.

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At the RCBF, authors will talk to children, tweens, and teens about how ideas become stories. Illustrators will demonstrate how characters are brought to life, and kids will leave clutching self-made crafts and books signed especially for them.

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​The Festival is presented by RACWI (Rochester Area Children's Writers & Illustrators), which forms the core of our organizers and volunteers. This event could not happen without the passionate support of our participating authors & illustrators, sponsors, faithful volunteers, and coordinators Kathy Blasi, Susannah Buhrman-Deever, Jim Chaize, Jeanmarie Courtney, Wendy Dunham, Sibby Falk, Donna Farrell, Yuko Kato-Jones, Sarah Mead, Jeff Minerd, Andrea Page, and Vivian Vande Velde.

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Co-Directors ​

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Vicki Schultz & Barbara Underhill