A feast of children’s literature

The theme of this year’s Rochester Children’s Book Festival is “Feed your imagination!” This event has been providing literary nourishment to imaginations of all ages for nearly three decades.

The 2024 festival, taking place on Nov. 2 at Monroe Community College, is presented by Rochester Area Children’s Writers and Illustrators, in affiliation with The Friends & Foundation of the Rochester Public Library. But an army of 80 volunteers, including festival chairs Jim Chaize and Ronny Frischman, set up the festival and get it off the ground.

Chaize, a primary-grade teacher in the Rochester City School District, is in his second year as co-director of the festival; he also serves as volunteer coordinator. Frischman is a freelance journalist intrigued by the idea of writing for young people.

When she attended her first festival, she recalls, “I was blown away by the atmosphere. It was so exciting to see so many kids engaging with books and authors.”

The 2024 festival will maintain that excitement with a guest list of about 50 established and emerging authors and illustrators, from Julie Berry to Paul Zelinsky. (You can read individual biographies here.) Chaize and Frischman estimate that 15 to 20 participants are from Rochester, four from Buffalo, and more than 30 from out of the area.

In almost three decades, the festival has become a treasured event, but it is also far from the only one; writers, illustrators, teachers, parents, and kids network at many festivals held during the year throughout the country. Rochester’s festival, however, is one of the longest established, most respected, and best known. Publisher’s Weekly described it as “the Gold Standard of Children’s Book Festivals,” and it has received the New York State Reading Association’s Literacy Award.

Authors and artists give readings and presentations throughout the day, so children can meet and hear favorite writers, and perhaps have them inscribe a book. There are also book-related crafts, face painting, puppetry, and a stage for short plays and singing songs. (All events are ASL interpreted by students from Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf.) Admission to this wonderland of children’s literature and entertainment is free.

“It’s not just for kids,” Frischman says. “It’s fascinating for adults as well.” And, she adds, with signed copies of many books by festival authors available on site from co-sponsor Lift Bridge Books of Brockport, “it’s an ideal place for early holiday shopping.”

A founder and mainstay of the festival is a local author with a national reputation: Vivian Vande Velde.Since her debut in the 1980s, she has published more than 40 books for young people (with a few more on the way), and received awards from the American Library Association and the Mystery Writers of America, among many others.

“Ever since I was little girl, I loved the idea of becoming a writer,” Vande Velde says. “I would read a book or see a movie and think, ‘I could do that better!’ I’d fiddle with the story and the characters to create something that was structured totally differently from a Grimm fairy tale or a Disney movie.”

For her first attempt at fiction, Vande Velde created the character of a princess—“but a princess that was a little like me. A little bit shy, with curly hair and glasses. Cute,” she laughs, “but not Disney gorgeous.”

She sent her story, “A Hidden Magic,” off to a publisher and to 32 others over the next two years, before it was published.

“I realized that as I was writing, I had no idea of the age range I was writing for. Some editors thought that since I was poking fun at fairy tales, it was really an adult book. Others thought it was ideal for 8 to 12 years and others for 7 to 10 years.”

Vande Velde is much more aware of her intended audience now and says most of her books are meant for 8 to12 year olds. Many have fantasy, mystery, or horror themes, but among the most popular is a series of books about a misbehaving squirrel; the most recent is “Squirrel on Stage.”

Vande Velde was a founder of “Festival-to-Go,” which brings the festival to city schools, and to children who might not be able to attend the festival in person. Each fall, local authors and illustrators, including Vande Velde, volunteer to discuss their books with classes and share their enthusiasm for reading and writing. Since 2004, the community service organization Altrusa International has joined Festival-to-Go, donating hundreds of dollars in books to participating schools’ libraries each year.

Parents and grandparents have surely noticed that children’s books have changed a lot since they were children. Recent years have seen an emphasis on representation and on authors of “books in which kids can see themselves,” as Chaize puts it, with characters identifying as Native American, Hispanic, African American, or Asian American.

Vande Velde agrees that “many books for children are published now on topics that would have certainly raised eyebrows not long ago.

“Like many people of my age, I learned to read with Dick and Jane books—white, middle-class suburbia,” she notes. “Children’s books now are much more inclusive and diverse, and more representative of urban families. A family might be homeless and living in a car, they might have members who use canes or wheelchairs or who are hard of hearing. And picture books about the Holocaust and other events in history are coming out geared to younger and younger audiences.”

These might be difficult concepts for a child to grasp, but Vande Velde says, “a 7-year-old will take what he or she can handle from stories like that, But they might well read more into the story when they reread it as an older child.”

The continuing success of the Rochester Children’s Book Festival is a reminder that children still enjoy stories.

“I’ve heard many times about the demise of the book,” says Vande Velde, “but I think that’s just not the case. Whether they are in print, on a Nook, on a Kindle or other device, adults and children will always want stories.”

David Raymond is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer. The Beacon welcomes comments and letters from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name. Submissions to the Letters page should be sent to [email protected].