A University Literacy Festival: The Impact of Connecting Children’s Authors with Students, Teachers, and Librarians from Title I Schools

A literacy festival is one of the most effective ways to promote reading and fosters the idea that books make a difference, especially to under-supported students. This paper is based on a research study that focused on how a university literacy festival supported engagement and increased reading attitudes and habits for students of Title I schools. It also explores a longitudinal study that analyzed a university’s literacy festival and its impact on students, librarians, teachers, children’s authors, teacher candidates, and librarians from Title I schools in southwest Florida. The findings of this study suggest that a university literacy festival helps connect children with books, which can help promote a lifelong love of reading and writing. A university literacy festival featuring a variety of diverse authors presenting interactive workshops showcasing their literary craft enabled students from Title I schools to engage with the authors and to see themselves as writers and encouraged them to explore a university in their own backyard. This university literacy festival made a positive impact in the area of engagement in reading and found an increase in reading from students from Title I schools that attended the event. Keywords: literacy festival, children’s authors, Title I students, teacher candidates, reading