RETHINK EDUCATION
CELEBRATING TEEN LITERATURE
Teen Book Festival Builds Enthusiasm in Reading After the success of the third Festival, the TBF Planning Committee realized that the festival was outgrowing the space available in the Fairport School District. The Committee thought that perhaps a college campus would be an appropriate fit for the Festival and as a result, approached the Language, Literacy, and Technology Department at Nazareth College to see if there might be a place for TBF at Nazareth. JULIA POSTLER, an instructor in the Graduate Literacy Programs was instrumental at making the initial connections between the LLT faculty and the TBF community. She was the first to serve as an adult volunteer at the 2008 Festival and served as one of the author assistants for LOLA DOUGLAS/LARA ZEISES. In the past seven years, TBF has grown into a highly energized and engaging community literacy event, which has received national and international acclaim. The first year, the Festival hosted less than a dozen authors, a handful of sponsors, and approximately 500 people in attendance. The festival now brings over 3,000 teens, parents, middle school and high school teachers, librarians, college students and faculty, youth-focused agencies and other community members together to celebrate teens and authors. The Festival has also hosted many award-winning authors such as LAURIE HALSE ANDERSON, SHARON FLAKE, ELLEN HOPKINS, A.S. KING, ALEX SANCHEZ, and TERRY TRUEMAN. LAURA C.S. JONES serves as the Naz/TBF coordinator and as an honorary member of the TBF planning committee. She has had the opportunity to witness first-hand
JANET M. SANTOS, B.A. GRADUATE STUDENT LITERACY EDUCATION
how this partnership between TBF and the School of Education at Nazareth has been mutually beneficial. Every year, the students, faculty, staff and alumni of Nazareth are invited to actively participate as volunteers for the event. These volunteers welcome the teens and their teachers,
IN COLLABORATION WITH
librarians, and parents to campus and they interact with the teens and the authors throughout
LAURA C.S. JONES, PH.D. PROFESSOR LITERACY EDUCATION
the day. “It is truly a wonderful event for all those involved. Every year we see people coming out of the sessions with big smiles on their faces, rushing to get to the next session. When you see adults and teens – together – talking about authors and books, there is nothing better.” At the same time, there is a positive ripple effect which is also beginning to take place which is further strengthening the impact this partnership is having on teens in our community. “Just this past month, Stephanie – the founder of TBF – received an email from one of our Graduate Literacy students who was a volunteer at the first Festival held at Naz. He is teaching now and wants to bring his students to the Festival. Creating a long-lasting influence on one’s attitudes about the impact meeting authors and being connected to a community that celebrates Young Adult (YA) Literature is exactly the kind of impact we had hoped to see flourish with this partnership.”
6 • WWW.NAZ.EDU