Camarillo, Calif., April 16, 2015 – Children of all ages are invited to step into the world of imagination Saturday, April 25 during the 10th Annual Children’s Reading Celebration and 38th Annual Young Authors’ Fair.
CSU Channel Islands (CI) students enrolled in an English course called “Introduction to Children’s Literature” will be reading aloud to kids from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the John Spoor Broome Library at One University Drive in Camarillo.
CI students from the Four Pillars chapter of Mortar Board National Honor Society and Tomorrow’s Teachers will host a craft area and a creative writing station to encourage kids to express themselves.
Kids will be asked to write about questions like: “Write about your favorite place in the world. What can you do there? What can you eat there? What animals are there?”
CI Assistant Librarian Janet Pinkley said the book and authors’ fair is aimed at freeing a child’s natural sense of wonder.
“The event is really about curiosity and literacy,” Pinkley said. “I think curiosity is what drives children to be creative and we can use books, a love of reading, and print culture to support that curiosity.”
This is the first time in the event’s 11-year history that a bilingual author will be featured.
Arcata elementary school teacher, author and El Salvador native René Colato Lainez will read from one of his children’s books, entitled “René has Two Last Names.”
In his book, Lainez’s main character is sad because he can only have one last name in the U.S.: his father’s.
“It is my experience in the United States,” said Lainez, whose family fled to the U.S. to escape civil war in El Salvador when Lainez was 14. “This book is about Rene trying to tell his teachers how beautiful it is to have two last names. In the end he does a family tree and explains all he has gotten from all of his family members.”
Lainez’s stories portray Latina/o characters in a positive light to give his young readers a sense of hope.
“Everything you hear in the news is not always positive,” Lainez said. “In the news Latinos are criminals or in jail or committing crimes. You go to the movies and the Latino is the housekeeper or the gardener.”
Lainez’s books are designed to share the rich and beautiful aspects of the Latino culture, along with some of different fables, such as the story about a mouse coming to visit when a child loses a tooth, rather than the tooth fairy.
“In one story I have the mouse and the tooth fairy fighting over the tooth,” he said.
The John Spoor Broome Library has been presenting an annual "Children's Reading Celebration” since 2004. In 2006, the festival joined forces with the Ventura County Reading Association, which had been presenting a "Young Author's Fair" for 27 years.
Since then, the event has become a collaboration of CI's University Library, the English Program at CI, the Ventura County Reading Association, and the Ventura County Office of Education.
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About California State University Channel Islands
CSU Channel Islands(CI) is the only four-year, public university in Ventura County and is known for its interdisciplinary, multicultural and international perspectives, and its emphasis on experiential and service learning. CI’s strong academic programs focus on business, sciences, liberal studies, teaching credentials, and innovative master’s degrees. Students benefit from individual attention, up-to-date technology, and classroom instruction augmented by outstanding faculty research. CI has been designated by the U.S. Department of Education as a Hispanic-Serving Institution and is committed to serving students of all backgrounds from the region and beyond. Connect with and learn more by visiting CI's Social Media.