Use Summer to Prepare for Book Festival

The may not be returning until Oct. 1, but festival organizers have announced two ways borough youth can prepare for the event. 

The Student Connection—

Summer reading has never been more exciting.

Collingswood Book Festival is making a proposition to students, regarding mandatory summer reading required by the school district. Students will be able to meet the authors of some of their favorite summer reading titles on Oct. 1, at the festival. 

Event organizers said the festival will open with Samantha Hanses Has Rocks in Her Head author Nancy Viau, who will host a discussion with fourth- and fifth-grade student readers. 

Sixth-graders will meet Leslie Connor, author of Waiting For Normal and Crunch.

Adele Griffin, who penned novels like Where I Want to Be, Tighter, and a number of young adult thrillers, will discuss her novels with local eighth-graders. 

Closing the festival's Student Connection incentive will be a series of young adult authors from the KidLit Authors Club, who will talk about their works and discuss with students the writing process.

Included in the KidLit Authors Club panel will be Watersmeet and The Centaur's Daughter author Ellen Jensen Abbot; Fairy Tale author Cyn Balog; Inconvenient author Margie Gelbwasser; Popular author Alissa Grosso; The Lipstick Laws author Amy Holder, and others.

All authors will be present and signing book copies at the Collingswood Book Festival Oct. 1, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For those who haven't begun their summer reading, each of the aforementioned titles are available for check-out at . 

The novels will also be provided to Collingswood Public School District students, thanks to Collingswood Book Festival Committee members.

Season for Young Poets—

Aspiring young poets ages seven through 13 are invited to write and submit their original poetry works, which will be recited aloud during the festival. 

Submitted works will be read under the Book Festival Poetry Tent, and prize-winning submissions will receive tasty treats from The Pop Shop.

But there's one catch. All poetry must cater to the theme, "It's a Great Season: Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall."

To enter, students must be between the ages of 7 and 13, grades first through seventh. A submission must be the student's original work, and must depict one or more of the four seasons. No mention of the season is necessary, so long as the season is shown through description.

Students may submit no more than three poems each. On one side of the submission paper, the poem must be printed clearly or typed. On the other side of the paper, the student's name, grade, age, hometown, and an adult's contact information (phone number or email) must be listed. 

All entries must be postmarked for Sept. 1, and may be mailed or hand-delivered to:

BookFest Poetry, c/o

771 Haddon Avenue, Collingswood NJ 08108

Those who wish to have their poems returned should mail their entries along with a self-addressed envelope. 

Students selected to read their works or chosen for awards will be notified via the contact information listed on their submission. 

For more information about either of these summer incentives, visit collingswoodbookfestival.com.