“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.
