Rochester Children's Book Festival

The Rochester Children’s Book Festival (RCBF) has been a treasured annual event for the Rochester community and beyond for 27 years. This year’s festival theme “Feed Your Imagination: Read!” encourages children of all ages to celebrate literacy, diversity, and the magic of reading with a day of family-friendly activities and programs.
                    
Visiting out-of-town authors include Caldecott Medalist Paul Zelinksy, New York Times bestselling authors Chris Grabenstein, Nikki Grimes, Rajani LaRocca, Anika Aldamuy Denise, and the ever-popular Jane Yolen. Also attending will be more than 25 Rochester area authors, including Newbery Medal Winner Linda Sue Park and Edgar Award winner Vivian Vande Velde. Several authors, along with the festival co-chairs are available for interviews, upon request.

The festival will offer:

- Free admission and parking (Lot M)
- “Meet and greet” with over 50 authors and illustrators
- Break-out rooms for author/illustrator presentations, workshops and story times
- Book-related craft activities for children
- Face painting
- Signed books for purchase through our on-site vendor, Lift Bridge Book Shop
- ASL interpretation of presentations provided pro-bono by RIT/NTID students.

Complementing the MCC event is the RCBF outreach program, Festival-to-Go, which brings the festival to children who might not otherwise have the opportunity to attend. Each fall, local authors and illustrators volunteer in Rochester city schools to share their enthusiasm for reading and writing. Children experience and participate in presentations that focus on writing, illustrating, reading, research, storytelling, poetry and music. Over the years, the program has delivered free books to thousands of city school children.

Major sponsors of the festival are: Rochester Area Children’s Writers and Illustrators, Lift Bridge Book Shop, Friends & Foundation of the Rochester Public Library, MCC, KidsOutAndAbout.com, Wegmans, WXXI, the RIT Inn & Conference Center, and RIT/National Technical Institute for the Deaf.

The RCBF, which attracts thousands of people each year, has received the New York State Reading Association’s Literacy Award and the Big Pencil Award from Writers and Books in recognition of the festival’s commitment to literacy. Publisher’s Weekly Magazine described the RCBF as the “Gold Standard” of children’s book festivals.

Location: R. Thomas Flynn Campus Center

Free parking will be available in Lot M.