Happy Birthday to me!

One of my daughters and her family came for a three-day visit during this past weekend. My birthday was on the first of the three days and we decided to celebrate by attending the Festival of Books, held at BYU. I had heard about this event first at a meeting of the Governor's Commission on Literacy. It would serve as the kick off of the Governor's wife's Summer Reading Challenge. It was also adopted by the public libraries across the state as part of their own summer reading programs.

I worried that the activities planned for the Festival of Books would not interest the three grandchildren who would accompany me and I was right about the youngest of them. She is only 4 1/2 months old but she was mostly tolerant of the stroller all morning.

The 5 year old and the 3 year old were thrilled! The notable attraction was the bouncy area with an inflatable slide and an inflatable castle of bouncing delights. The children visited this area twice, only pulled away when they noticed that characters that they recognized from their story books were wandering among the people and festival booths. Most of that day's sunburn was probably earned chasing down Scooby-Doo or Clifford, Madeline or Winnie the Pooh. Even Darth Vader and a few Storm Troopers had their allure.

Merchants, who could claim some association with books or literacy, lined the sidewalks and many offered some items to entice passers into conversation. My young grandchildren passed on the face painting booth but were willing to stand in line ten minutes or more waiting for a long balloon twisted roughly into the shape of a sword.

I spotted the booth of the Governor's Commission for Literacy next to the Toddler Tent and was surprised that it was drawing a crowd. As we got close, we saw why. They were offering a free book to children. My 4 year old grandson was thrilled to find one of the series of The Magic Tree House--his favorite books. The 3 year old found a Golden Book about a bunny, which delighted her as well. Both of them carried them around often during the following days of their visit.

Lest you think that the Festival was strictly a children's event, other guests of the Festival included young adult fiction writers, musicians, chefs, historians, psychologists who write self-help books and many, many others. In order to escape the heat of the sun, everyone agreed to ice cream in the Terrace where I enjoyed listening to a panel of authors and movie makers discussing the difficulties of transforming a book to a screenplay, or vice versa.

Unencumbered by grandchildren, I think I could have spent most of the day at the Festival. As it was, we returned, happy but tired, to our car via shuttle bus in the early afternoon.

There will be another Festival of Books at the University of Utah in September. I don't know whether I will make it to that one but I highly recommend it. It was a great day and a great way to celebrate my birthday!