Save the Date! SJ Children’s Book Festival Coming Soon!

Come one, come all to the first ever South Jersey Children’s Book Festival: Celebrating FREADOM! This free event, sponsored by Inkwood Books and Rowan University, will be taking place on April 13, 2024 from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. at Haddonfield Middle School, located at 5 Lincoln Avenue.

What is the Book Festival?

This book festival is meant as a celebration for our freedom to read and the joy that comes from supporting inclusive and diverse stories. In the past few years, we’ve seen a rise in book banning in both schools and libraries. Of the books being banned, many of them are centered around LGBTQ+ and POC characters. While it can be disheartening to see such bans, especially if you’re a part of these communities, we’re here to show that these bans can’t bring us down. Our theme, Celebrating FREADOM, represents how we believe that all books, including ones highlighting diverse communities, deserve to be read and celebrated.

The festival is mainly aimed toward the picture book to the young adult reader. However, we don’t discriminate here! All families and book lovers of any age are welcome to join us in our celebration.

What kind of activities will there be?

We have a large range of fun and exciting activities for all our guests. Many of them involve the 15 extraordinary authors and illustrators we have attending, including featured speaker Cece Bell, author of the Newbery award-winning book El Deafo, which is also now an Apple TV+ Animated TV series. They will be participating in author talks, illustrator demos, and book signings. Keeping with our theme of Celebrating FREADOM, there will also be different discussion panels centered around banned books. Finally, we will have multiple fun arts and crafts activities as well.

What Authors will be attending?

Along with Cece Bell, we have many other authors and illustrators who will be appearing. Some of them include:

Kat Yeh (Just One Little Light)

Charity Alyse (Other Side of the Tracks)

Donna Gephart (Abby, Tried and True)

I.W. Gregorio (This Is My Brain in Love)

Jamar Nicholas (Leon: The Extraordinary)

Liz Montague (Maybe an Artist)

Matt Phelan (Leave It to Plum!)

And many more!

SJ Children’s Book Festival: Coming April 13th

We sincerely hope that you’ll be able to stop by and come join us in our celebration of reading and supporting diverse and inclusive stories. For more updates on the Book Festival, you can find us on Instagram at SJ_Childrens_Book_Festival, or follow Singularity Press at Singularity_Press.