San Antonio Book Festival 2014 | Lone Star Signers

Wow, what a fabulous San Antonio weekend! Normally we are swimming the first week in April, but I am not complaining about these cooler temperatures and rain. Summer CAN wait, as far as I am concerned.

I feel so fortunate to live in this city. There are amazing events happening each and every week--so many educational and cultural opportunities to experience with my children! This weekend, we went to Kids Day at the Park, sponsored by our local PBS station and the San Antonio Book Festival at the Central Library.

Addie and I did our research on the authors and illustrators in the Children's Reading Tent at the Book Festival--we've been reading Locomotive, Cub's Big World, Senor Pancho Had a Rancho, The Cazuela that the Farm Maiden Stirred, and more!

The turnout at the Book Festival was impressive--by the time we arrived at the Central Library, the parking garage was already full, so we had to walk about half a mile from the free parking lot. We stopped by the H-E-B tent, where an interactive reading of Ferdinand was taking place. After that, we found our way to the Children's Reading Tent and caught the tail end of Antonio Sacre's presentation--he's a hilarious bilingual storyteller, and we'll definitely be checking out his books!

The next author was Samantha Vamos, who read one of our new favorites, The Cazuela that the Farm Maiden Stirred. Addie was fortunate to meet her before the presentation, and then we purchased a copy of the book for Ms. Vamos to sign after. I was truly impressed by how gracious all of the authors and illustrators were with the children--that goes a long way toward inspiring the next generation of writers and artists!

There was a short break, so we walked down the closed-off street to hear the music and see all the booths. Addie and Kate danced, and we met The Cat in the Hat! We finished off our time at the Book Festival with a presentation by illustrator Joe Cepeda--a very down-to-earth fella who shared all kinds of interesting tidbits about the art he creates. Addie was enthralled throughout each of the readings--I can't wait to carve out some book-writing time for her this week!

My thanks to the San Antonio Public Library for putting on this excellent FREE event for our city! I'm sad that we only got to experience a few hours of the festival before naptime--but we are already so excited for next year's.