The GBF Children’s Village is where your child’s book adventure begins on Saturday, May 18!

Award-winning children’s and teen authors will speak about their recent books and interact with audiences in the Jim Henson, Willa Cather, and Ogden Nash Pavilions throughout the day. Each presentation will be followed by a book signing. Featured authors will include:

• Walter Dean Myers, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature
• Jon Scieszka, former National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and founder of “Guys Read,” a literacy initiative for boys
• Adele Griffin, two-time National Book Award finalist
• Maggie Stiefvater, 2012 Printz Honor
• Sheila Turnage, 2013 Newbery Honor
• Mac Barnett, Fred Bowen, twin sisters Julia DeVillers & Jennifer Roy…and many more!!!

Books of the Festival’s Featured Authors will be available for purchase in the Politics and Prose Book Sales Tent. We encourage you to support this fabulous independent book store!

We recommend you start your day with a visit to the Washington Parent booth, where you and your child can make a “Books are an Adventure” Passport and use it as you travel the festival! Learn about all of the fun and engaging activities you can do, and places you can visit in order to fill your passport with stickers and stamps to collect a prize at the end!

The main attractions will include:

IMAGINATION STATION, our children’s performance stage and home to children’s entertainers including storytellers, puppeteers, jugglers, authors and magic.   All acts encourage reading, writing and the love of books.

10:00 – 10:30 AM

The curtain rises with Scholastic’s introduction of Booktalks, a new way for students to promote the love of reading by providing short, engaging and enthusiastic presentations to their peers that will inspire others to read the same book.  Booktalks incorporates all of the language arts: reading, writing and speaking.  Come and learn about this new idea and how it can be used in schools, in children’s book clubs and at the library.

10:40 – 11:10 AM

Friends of the Library, Quince Orchard  presents The Gingerbread Boy and The Three Billy Goats Gruff with their very own Penny Theater.  Performances are intended for children ages 3 to 6 years old.  Penny Theater dates back to Victorian England, where for one penny a child could buy a kit to create a small theater box with cut-out characters.

11:20 AM – 12:05 PM

Alden Phelps delights the audience with Word Play, an interactive musical performance that bolsters language skills while entertaining and teaching children original songs and rhyming. It will also include a chance to improvise song lyrics.

12:15 – 1:00 PM:

Nicolo the Jester combines juggling with comedy, music, poetry, character acting, storytelling and audience participation in a merry spectacle that emphasizes how much he loves to read! He encourages kids and adults to be nice to one another, to keep trying, and never give up!

1:10 – 1:40 PM:

Mayor’s Book Club 3^rd Grade Reading Competition Awards.  The 4th Annual Mayor’s Book Club Reading Competition Awards Ceremony will begin with the vocal talent of the Gaithersburg Elementary School Chorus.  The Mayor’s Book Club Reading Competition is open to Gaithersburg’s City school students in the 3rd grade, and presents an award to the class, and the student, and who reads the most number of pages over a four-week period.

1:50 – 2:35 PM

Magician Mike Rose presents an entertaining and hilarious magic show which also promotes reading and library use.  Telling the story of how a book changed and guided his life, Mike displays his first magic book, a 100 year old tome that was a gift from his grandfather.  During the show Mike draws on his expertise as a performer, magic historian and published author to demonstrate how books became the major source of his success as a professional magician.  Throughout the show, children will be entertained by many of the magic tricks Mike learned from these books!

2:45 – 3:30 PM

Dance, Sing, Wiggle and Giggle with Arianna Ross & Story Tapestries as the book worm in you finds an exciting story to read, write, draw, dance, and make music about.  If you have a big imagination and love to tell tales, sit down, settle in and get ready to play.  Discover the reader and writer in you!

3:40 – 4:10 PM

InterAct Story Theatre combines storytelling, drama and song to explore different world cultures.  The actor becomes a variety of characters while bringing multicultural stories to life.  Children get into the act too by participating in this educational and riveting experience.

4:20 – 5:20 PM

Join author Dawn Daria and professional juggler Paul Miller of Flow Circus as they share Dawn’s book, “Grounded For Good, ” a story where a boy named Derek discovers a unique passion for juggling, and how it can help him connect to those around him.  The story and performance will conclude with a lesson in the basics of juggling.  Connect with Derek in this hands-on, interactive session.

STORY TIME!

Get cozy in the GBF Story Time Tent where storybooks come to life as MCPS media specialists & educators read their favorite children’s books, the manager of Washingtonian Center’s California Pizza Kitchen shares her favorite pizza stories, and Mr. and Mrs. Robert Griffin, Jr.,  parents of Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III, read some of RGIII’s favorite childhood books. Readings will be 20 minutes long, and will begin every 1/2 hour throughout the day.

Reading Schedule:

10:00 – Joseph Rowe, Vice Principal, Washington Grove ES

10:30 – Ginger Russell, SPED Paraeducator, Gaithersburg MS

11:00 – Jaree Donnelly, Arts Barn Story Makers Instructor, student readings

11:30 – Marianne Reiff, Media Specialist, Rosemont ES

12:00 – Stacie Rotella, Media Specialist, Watkins Mills ES

12:30 – Marcie Gross, Media Specialist, Diamond ES

1:00 –   Princess Francisca Moreno, Miss Northern Maryland Outstanding Teen

1:30 –   Jacqueline & Robert Griffin, Jr., parents of Redskins QB Robert Griffin III

2:00 –   Maddie Tallapragada, Media Specialist, Thomas W. Pyle MS

2:30 –   Nicole Begley, Manager of California Pizza Kitchen Washingtonian Center

3:00 –   Glenda Henderson, retired MCPS Media Specialist

3:30 –   Jaree Donnelly, Arts Barn Story Makers Instructor, student readings

4:00 –   Gaithersburg ES

4:30 –   Joyce Sterling, Media Specialist, Summit Hall ES

AROUND THE VILLAGE, all day long!

Young readers will be able to make bookmarks and other crafts, write stories about their families, learn about summer reading programs, and play games that inspire literary creativity and awareness. We are excited to have the City of Gaithersburg’s Arts Barn, Educational Enrichment Committee,  Youth Services, and Community Museum, as well as Family Services Inc., The Frederick Keys, Girl Scouts Council of the Nation’s Capital, Montgomery College Early Childhood Education Club,  and Scholastic organizing  fun activities that will encourage your children to read!

What Children’s Village would be complete without a pony?!!  Back by popular demand will be Leah Taylor Jefferson, author of “Horses of the Presidents” and “The Adventures of Oreo and Algonquin”,  along with her  pony Oreo!  Kids will be able to dress up and get their photo taken with adorable Oreo.

All students attending Gaithersburg City schools are encouraged to stop by the CHARACTER COUNTS IN GAITHERSBURG! CHARACTER COUNTS WITH OUR YOUTH! Tent to receive a free character counts book and enter their school in a raffle for a basket of books signed by the Festival authors.  The basket of books will be donated to the winning school’s library.  This tent will also be collecting gently used chapter books for the Summer In the City Camps and Youth programs. Please consider donating so every child will have the chance to read this summer!

And last but certainly not least….

Check out our new KIDS BOOK NOOK, located on the City Hall Concert Pavilion Stage, in the author signing area. Thanks to sponsors Home Depot, California Pizza Kitchen and Popular Kinetics Press, children of all ages are invited on stage to make a writing supply box and design a pizza story with a pizza box! Children ages 10+ can also create pop-up art with artist and paper engineer Carol Barton.  Participants will design and construct their own card images that can later be added to a book that can be made at home.  Carol will offer 3 half-hour workshops for third through sixth graders at 11:30AM, 1:30PM and 3:30PM.    Space is limited so arrive early!

 See You At The Festival !!!