By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Back in October, Atlantic magazine published an article about how college students at elite colleges no longer could manage to read entire books. They had never had to.
Denise Phillips, the founding owner of Gathering Volumes book store, asked her husband who teaches at the college level, about this. He said he wasn’t surprised.
The Northwest Ohio Teen Book Festival bucks that trend.
The fourth festival, which has attracted about 400 preteens and teens in recent years, will be presented at Rossford High School in downtown Rossford on Saturday, March 15 from 8:30 a.m. when the scavenger hunt begins to 3:30 p.m. when the book signings in the authors alley conclude. Click for full schedule.
The event is free but registration is requested. Click to register.
Phillips and a group of friends launched the festival in 2020 only to have the inaugural effort snuffed out by the emergence of COVID-19. Undeterred, and with the organizational experience from the previous year under their belts, they came back to launch the event in 2021.
Initially it had been planned for Bowsher High School in Toledo. But the school couldn’t commit given the lingering pandemic concerns. When Rossford school librarian Shelly Bertsch signed on, and the festival had its home.
The festival features presentations by 20 authors including morning and afternoon keynote addresses.
The writers cover the gamut of genres — horror, romance, fantasy, graphic novels, mystery, historical fiction and those books that slip between the cracks. There’s even a reading discussion on “Genre Fluid: Reading Across Genres.”
Click for full list of authors.
The keynote speakers are: Cinda Williams Chima at 9:45 a.m. and Kasie West at 2 p.m.Chima writes series of fantasy novels including the The Heir Chronicles in which wizards, warriors, seers, enchanters, and sorcerers battle it out in contemporary Ohio. West pens romance novels for young adults. Her most recent involves podcasting, football, and, yes, love.
Phillips said the balancing act of selecting authors goes beyond genre. Many authors’ books are released by major publishing houses. But, she said, the committee also makes sure there’s room for those who self-publish.
While authors come from around the country, the festival also supports local authors. Cartoonist Scott McMahon lives in Rossford and writer Chelsea Bobulski, who blends horror with romance, lives in Perrysburg.
[RELATED: Novelist Chelsea Bobulski set to deliver her second thriller]
The festival offers plenty of ways for students to engage panel discussions featuring the author talks, reading discussions, panels, and writing workshops, all scheduled throughout the day.
This year, Phillips said, the event is offering to provide tracks for students with specific interests. Is a teen a writer? Well, here’s a schedule of particular interest. Maybe the teen just like to read? There’s a track for that. Or maybe the participant just wants to hear panel discussions or maybe they are interested in illustration.
But they are always free to choose to follow their own path.
The festival has plenty of more free form activities, including a room where attendees can play board games with writers. There’s an Alice in Wonderland escape room, a place to buy books, and even a quiet space for someone who just wants to read for a spell.
Attendees come mostly from Lucas, Wood, and Hancock counties and some from southeastern Michigan. But there’s a bus sponsored to bring teens from the Cincinnati area.
Phillips feels the festival has established itself to the extent that as long as there are people willing to volunteer to stage it there will be more chapters.
