Swain School Hosts Paloozival Book Fest

Children and lovers of children's books will soon get a chance to meet some authors and artists who make the magic happen.

Paloozival – a book festival featuring five children's literature authors and illustrators – will be held 1-4 p.m. June 18 at   in Salisbury Township.

The event is organized by Lower Macungie Library, but since the crowd is expected to be huge, Paloozival was moved to The Swain School, which has plenty of room, said Erin Stephens, the library's youth services director.

There is no admission charge, and copies of the books by the five participating authors -- Brian Biggs, Amy Ignatow, David Lubar, Matt Phelan and Eric Wight -- will be for sale.

Lubar, of Nazareth, is the only local author. The others are from Philadelphia and beyond, and they will be happy to provide autographs, Stephens said.

What else will happen at Paloozival is still up in the air. The library describes it as a “summer event unheard of in this area,” though technically, it will take place on the last weekend of spring. Stephens and the quintet of kiddie-lit professionals are still brainstorming the day's details.

It should be fun for everyone, including the parents and grandparents of the pre-school and elementary-school-age children who form the target audience, Stephens said.

“There will be improv, all kinds of wild and random things,” she said. “This is the thing I love about children's authors. They have such great personalities.”

Stephens hopes to expand Paloozival and make it a tradition. The idea was born one stormy night last February, when children's author Eric Wight visited Lower Macungie Library.

“Despite the fact it started sleeting we had over 100 kids show up that night at the library,” Stephens said. That inspired her and Wight to dream of a potential children's literature festival for the entire Lehigh Valley, she said.

Paloozival will be the first such festival, but Stephens would like to see the event expand to include workshops and other activities, especially hands-on events for children, she said. One focus of her professional work is to encourage boys to read, since reading can be “a much tougher sell” with boys than with girls, she added.

Stephens encourages anyone who plans to attend to pre-order books, especially ones they hope to have signed by the authors. Lower Macungie Library will receive 20 percent of the profits from book sales, she said.

For information on pre-ordering and details of Paloozival, click here or call 610-966-686