Showing love of literacy

“So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,

Go throw your TV set away,

And in its place you can install,

A lovely bookshelf on the wall.”

— Roald Dahl’s Oompa–Loompas in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”

Thousands of young readers will descend on OCC Sunday for the fifth annual Orange County Children’s Book Festival.

The event includes readings and signings with top authors and illustrators, exhibits, several stages of live entertainment and a popular wild animal arena.

Actor and author Jamie Lee Curtis will make a 1 p.m. appearance on the Main Entertainment Stage, where she will read from and sign her new book, “Big Words for Little People.”

A variety of literacy advocacy groups will be on hand, as well as dozens of exhibitor booths.

Boy and Girl Scout troops will collect new or nearly new young adult and children’s books for needy areas.

Members of the Orange County Chapter of the Assn. of Legal Administrators will volunteer at the book donation site to help collect and distribute books to thousands of families.

“Each of us has the capacity to be an extraordinary leader, extraordinary communicator, extraordinary learner, extraordinary employee, extraordinary employer, and extraordinary person,” the association’s President Janel M. Ozar said. She is a children’s literacy advocate.

Kids also will have the chance to ride a free train through the campus and meet their favorite costumed book characters, like Norky the Peneagle, the “official mail bird” of the North Pole.

Norky will entertain from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., while his creator Steve Allgeier will sign his new book, “Christmas with Norky: The Adventure Begins…”

Following a welcome address, Audri’s School of the Performing Arts, children’s entertainer and author Barney Saltzberg, and author Gary Soto will round out the morning on the Main Entertainment Stage. After lunch, the International Peace Choir, Company Kids from the OC Song & Dance Company, the Beckman High School Bel Canto Choir, the Claddagh School of Irish Dance and Tesoro de Mexico Ballet Folklórico Dance Group will perform.

Over in the Kids’ Craft Corner, artists will teach how to make a stamped and colored bookmark.

At the OCC Authors and Entertainment Stage, author Toothena will start the morning, followed by entertainer Tio Alecc and Pete the Pirate, the college mascot. In the afternoon, Susan Casey will discuss inventive kids, followed by a robotics demonstration by kids from Middle College High School, entertainer Jules Music and author Stacia Deutsch.

On the Storyteller Stage, Doris Hand, David Whiting and Diana Spirithawk, and Captain Jeff will perform in the morning, followed by Barbara Hart, Mary Ann Newton, Adrienne McMillan and Shelley Moore.

Over on the Live Animal Stage, Cubby Cashen’s “The Great Chiweenie” will start the morning, followed by Mollie Hogan of “Nature of Wildworks Wild Animals,” and Christina Das, author of “Coo Coo Duckling.”

In the afternoon, Hogan will reappear, followed by Steve Gray of “There Was a Coyote Who Swallowed a Flea” and Mike Kobert and Dona Donato, of “Who Goes With That Nose?”

Wilma the Giant Snake will make a special guest appearance with other reptile friends, followed by Steve Allgeier of “Norky” fame, Hogan, Lori Polydoros of “Cost of Freedom: Saving the California Condor,” and Deborah Turner of “How Willy Got His Wheels.”

The Grandparents Rock Illustrator Stage will feature morning demonstrations by Barney Saltzberg, writer/illustrator of award-winning children’s book “Crazy Hair Day;” author and illustrator team Barry M. Chung and Neil Steven Klayman, of “Boris Ate A Thesaurus;” and Guy Gilchrist, cartoonist of Nancy, Sluggo and Jim Henson’s Muppets.

In the afternoon, Larissa Marantz, illustrator for “SpongeBob Square Pants,” “The Rugrats” and “The Wild Thornberrys,” will be followed by illustrator Julie Herrmann of “Frick and Frack and More of That.”

Steve Gray will draw characters from “Farmer McPeepers and His Missing Milk Cows” and “There Was a Coyote Who Swallowed a Flea.”

Captain Jeff will give out “Undrawings,” pictures that are left incomplete for kids to finish, and Gilchrist will make an encore presentation.

WHAT: Fifth annual Orange County Children’s Book Festival

WHEN: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday

WHERE: OCC, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa

COST: Free admission and parking

INFORMATION: kidsbookfestival.com

CANDICE BAKER can be reached at (949) 494-5480 or at candice.baker@latimes.com.