Authors’ Festival fosters love of reading

Angelique Flores

Second-grader Brandon Unger won’t have to wonder how author Joan

Bransfield Graham comes up with ideas for her poems much longer.

He’ll get the chance to ask the author Tuesday, when the 11th annual

Authors’ Festival comes to Circle View Elementary School.

“It was great,” Brandon said about last year’s festival. “They told us

about their books and when they made them.

The festival will take place at schools in Huntington Beach and Fountain

Valley, with nearly 50 authors from California and Hawaii visiting 25

schools in the area.

“This introduces children to literature, making it fun and getting them

interested in reading,” said Lyn Scott, president of the Friends of the

Children’s Library, which is sponsoring the event. “If we get one or two

authors out this, it’s worthwhile.”

At past festivals, authors have dressed in costumes, held activities

outside the classrooms and worked closely with small groups, offering

writing hints and tips. Each author also shares insight about writing,

books and the importance of reading.

“The older authors bring their own personalities; the younger ones bring

their enthusiasm,” said second-grade teacher Jill Proodian.

The excitement of meeting and interacting with the authors introduces the

children to new books and inspires them to do their own writing in class,

she said.

Brandon was inspired to create designs for his own shape poetry, the form

favored by Graham in which the verses are arranged to look like the

poem’s subject. He picked a surfboard.

Many students are looking forward to the festival’s return and have been

reading books by the visiting authors.

“We read books every day, and this brings them to life,” Proodian said.

Several students have said they want to be authors or illustrators when

they grow up.

“Authors aren’t real to the students,” Scott said. “We show the students

that the authors are real and normal, and that being an author is not

unattainable.”

Among the children’s authors expected to participate are Carl Green,

Dolores Johnson, Mary Ann Easley, Joan Pizzo, Sara Van Dyck and Angi Ma

Wong.