We're looking forward to enjoying a beautiful spring weekend on the Parkway, with two perfect days to stroll the Festival's bustling literary Street Fair! 

Featuring a thriving base of local Philly exhibitors, as well as several new organizations and authors from New York to California, the 60+ exhibitors at the Free Library Festival Street Fair comprise an eclectic group that is inspiring in its diversity. In the spirit of a true arts community, writers, publishers, indie presses, literary magazines, neighborhood bookshops, and libraries join together to enliven the Festival, share their missions, and develop relationships with new readers. 

For sci fi fans, check out the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and meet author Lawrence Johnson, Sr., explore the spiritual with Swedenborg Foundation Publishers and the Islamic Circle of North America, get radical with Wooden Shoe, and get informed at PhillyHealthInfo.org. Find gems at DBookman's Used and Rare Books and Africana Homestead Legacy Publishers.

For the full listing of our fantastic 2009 Festival exhibitors, click here.

Sample award-winning local wines from Chaddsford Winery and the excellent cheeses of Cabot Creamery Cooperative, and don't miss festival food by Stephen Starr Events: featuring lobster mac-n-cheese, BBQ chicken quesadillas, Thai chicken skewers, and awesome burgers and dogs--it's festival food Stephen Starr Style!

From noted authors to award-winning illustrators to lively musicians, this year's Free Library Festival offers something for everyone in the family. Here are just some of the highlights:

Don't Miss the Storybook Parade!
Saturday, April 18 at 12:00 PM, Target Children's Stage
Grab a free noisemaker and cheer on your favorite storybook characters as they parade around the Free Library Festival Street Fair grounds. Characters will be introduced by Festival Sponsor 6abc's Tamala Edwards.

Highlights for Young Adults

Peter Lerangis | The 39 Clues: The Sword Thief
Saturday, April 18 at 1:00 PM, Target Children's Stage
Peter Lerangis, author of numerous books for children and young adults, contributes to the New York Times bestselling 39 Clues series with The Sword Thief, the third installment in the series. More info>>

John Green | Paper Towns
Nerdfighters unite!
Saturday, April 18 at 3:30 PM, Target Children's Stage
John Green's first novel, Looking for Alaska, won the Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in young adult literature. He is praised for his intelligent prose, "from hilarious, hyperintellectual trash talk and schtick, to complex philosophizing, to devastating observation and truths" (School Library Journal). More info>>

Alexander Stadler | Julian Rodriguez
Sunday, April 19 at 2:00 PM, Story Hour Room
In his newest graphic novel, Philadelphian Alexander Stadler, chronicles the adventures of Julian Rodriguez, a courageous young boy sent to earth to study human life. More info>>

Highlights for Children

Susan Orlean | Lazy Little Loafers
Saturday, April 18 at 3:00 PM, Story Hour Room
Deemed "one of the wittiest new-baby-in-the-family books of recent years" by Publisher's Weekly, Susan Orlean's first children's book Lazy Little Loafers began as a humor piece for the New Yorker. More info>>

Shadra Strickland | Bird
Saturday, April 18 at 4:00 PM, Story Hour Room
Shadra Strickland won the Ezra Jack Keats Award and the 2009 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent for her work on her first children's picture book, Bird, about a young boy who uses drawing as a way to deal with his troubles. More info>>

Florence & Wendell Minor | If You Were a Penguin
Sunday, April 19 at 1:00 PM, Target Children's Stage
The first 100 attendees will receive a free copy of the book! A collaboration between illustrator Wendell Minor and his author wife Florence Minor, If You Were A Penguin is the 2009 Pennsylvania One Book, Every Young Child selection. More info>>

Music for the Family

Trout Fishing in America

Saturday, April 18 at 4:30 PM, Target Children's Stage
Trout Fishing in America, the long-standing musical partnership between bassist Keith Grimwood and guitarist Ezra Idlet, is a Grammy-nominated, Parents' Choice award-winning group for the whole family. Introduced by WXPN's Kathy O'Connell. More info>>

The Jimmies | Make Your Own Someday: Silly Songs for the Shorter Set
Sunday, April 19 at 2:30 PM, Target Children's Stage
Winner of the 2007 Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award and the 2007 Parents' Choice Award, The Jimmies take being silly very seriously. More info>>

Baby Loves Salsa
Sunday, April 19 at 4:30 PM, Target Children's Stage
Part of the Baby Loves Music family, Baby Loves Salsa helps children learn Spanish while learning about and dancing to salsa music! More info>>

10,000 Books for Children
Please consider purchasing a book for the Free Library's 10,000 Books for Children Summer Reading book drive. Stop by the Children's Book World booth (#54) or the Joseph Fox Book Shop booth (#65) at the Free Library Festival to purchase and donate a much-needed book for the Library's Summer Reading program. Books can be dropped off at these purchase points as well as at the Library Clubhouse booth (#50). For drop off locations at the Festival, see the Festival site map.

Raymond Luczak
Assembly Required: Notes from a Deaf Gay Life
Saturday, April 18 at 1:00 PM
In Assembly Required, essayist, poet, and playwright Raymond Luczak meditates on what it means to be a gay man living between the deaf and hearing worlds. More info>>

Amiri Baraka | Transbluesency
Saturday, April 18 at 4:00 PM
Transbluesency collects many of poet, playwright, and political activist Amiri Baraka's poems into a single volume, combining "the personal and political in highly charged ways" (Publishers Weekly).
More info>>

Daniel Hoffman | The Whole Nine Yards
Sunday, April 19 at 1:00 PM
Former United States Poet Laureate Daniel Hoffman recently received the Arthur Anse Prize for "a distinctive poet" from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
More info>>

Kevin Young | Dear Darkness
Sunday, April 19 at 2:00 PM
Inspired by the blues and the history of Black America, Kevin Young's poems appear in the New Yorker and the Paris Review, and Publisher's Weekly calls him "perhaps the most prominent African American poet of his generation."
More info>>

Susan Stewart | Red Rover
Sunday, April 19 at 3:00 PM
National Book Critics Circle Award-winner Susan Stewart explores the changing cycles of life in her new poetry collection, beginning with the fall of man and lofting into praise for the green and turning world.
More info>>

American Poetry Review, Booth #32
America's Best Poetry Magazine
www.aprweb.org
Philadelphia-based American Poetry Review was founded in 1972, and over the past 30 years has grown to become one of the most widely circulated poetry magazines, with subscribers in 55 countries. Author Cynthia Ozick writes, "[APR] renews our sense that poetry is urgent, the emergency room of our culture where night and day give way to meticulous and powerful attention."

Jen Bryant
A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams
Sunday, April 19 at 1:00 PM, Story Hour Room 
Jen Bryant is the author of more than a dozen books for children and young adults, including The Trial, Pieces of Georgia, and Ringside 1925: Views from the Scopes Trial, an Oprah's Book Club Kid's Reading List pick. Her children's biography, A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams, artfully captures the life of the poet and was named one of the New York Times Book Review's Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2008. A former French and German teacher, Bryant currently teaches children's literature at West Chester University.

Exhibitor Spotlight: Our Parkway Neighbors 

The Free Library Festival's Street Fair & Literary Marketplace is the place to check out what's happening in the literary and arts world.

We're excited to be joined again this year by many of our neighboring Parkway institutions! Presenting fun, interactive activities for families and information about their missions, our Parkway Neighbors can be found on Vine Street (see Site Map) during the Festival!

Academy of Natural Sciences, Booth #44
Connecting People to Nature Since 1812
ansp.org

The Barnes Foundation, Booth #56 
On the Parkway Soon!
barnesfoundation.org

Center City Independent Schools, Booth #55
Independent Schools. Independent Minds.
friends-select.org, greenetowneschool.org, st-peters-school.org

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Booth #45
Publisher of the Scholarly Books and Catalogues of the Philadelphia Museum of Art
philamuseum.org

Please Touch Museum, Booth #51
The Children's Museum of Philadelphia
pleasetouchmuseum.org

Free Library Fun at the Festival!

Library Clubhouse, Booth # 50 (see the Site Map)
The Library Clubhouse is your source for Festival information! Find out where the Double Daring Book for Girls authors are reading, where to buy Flat Belly Diet!, or where to hear poet Kevin Young. Purchase limited edition Festival t-shirts and totes, have your face painted, and enter to win exciting raffle prizes from Target, Stephen Starr Events, Chaddsford Winery, Cabot Creamery Cooperative, and Cashman & Associates. Also, learn about the programs and services the Free Library offers for free everyday, including Career Services: Workplace Wednesdays, Homework Help Online, and the LEAP After School Program.

Don't miss these special Library tours:
Click here for complete Parkway Central Tours info >>

Come tour the many treasures of the Parkway Central Library! The main lobby of the Beaux-Arts building, which opened its doors in 1927, currently features  banners designed by area artist Alexander Calder. The tour includes a visit to the Children's Room to see beautiful paintings by local artist N.C. Wyeth, a behind-the-scenes peek at our closed book stacks, and a visit to our green roof project. Meet at the Info Desk, Main Lobby.

Horseless Carriages & Hidden Treasures (Saturday only)

The Free Library's Automobile Reference Collection rivals the National Automotive History Collection at the Detroit Public Library in both size and scope and receives thousands of research inquiries a year from all over the world. For serious motor enthusiasts, or for the simply motor-curious, this tour through the normally closed collection is a trip off-the-blueprints through gear head heaven!
Tour groups will meet at the Reference Desk in the Business, Science, and Industry Department on the 2nd floor of the Central Library. (30 minutes)

Cantate Domino: Medieval Music Manuscripts in the Free Library of Philadelphia, 900-1500 (Saturday only)

The Rare Book Department maintains collections of rare and valuable prints, books, manuscripts, and works on paper and vellum from the ancient world through the 20th century. Take a guided tour through the current exhibition of medieval music manuscripts, and be sure to visit the Elkins Room, the 62-foot long paneled room bequeathed en entire to the Library by William McIntire Elkins. Take the main elevators to the Rare Book Department on the 3rd floor, and ring the buzzer at the door for entry.

Highlights for Adults

William D. Cohan | House of Cards 
Sunday, April 19, Bank of America Main Stage

"Masterfully reported," according to the Los Angeles Times, William D. Cohan's House of Cards chronicles the shocking fall of Bear Stearns and the end of the Second Gilded Age on Wall Street, explaining how a combination of risky bets, corporate political infighting, lax government regulations, and awful decision-making wrought havoc on the world financial system. The book is currently #2 on the New York Times Best Sellers List. A former senior Wall Street investment banker, Cohan is the author of the bestseller The Last Tycoons, winner of the 2007 FT/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award. His writing frequently appears in the Financial Times, Fortune, and the New York Times.

Our Children Can Soar: A Celebration of Rosa, Barack, and the Pioneers of Change

with illustrators James Ransome, Shadra Strickland, and Eric Velasquez

Sunday, April 19, Target Children's Stage

In Our Children Can Soar by Michelle Cook, 13 African-American artists, including award-winning illustrators James Ransome, Shadra Strickland, and Eric Velasquez, pay tribute to the pioneers who helped propel their fellow African-Americans through the civil rights movement and eventually into the White House.

James Ransome won the Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration for The Creation, the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance Award for The Wagon, and the Southeastern Book Association's Best Book of the Year Award for How Animals Saved the People. Several of his books have been featured on the Public Broadcasting Service programs Reading Rainbow and Storytime. He teaches at the Pratt Institute.

Shadra Strickland won the Ezra Jack Keats Award and the 2009 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent for her work on her first children's picture book, Bird, named an ALA Notable Children's Book. She studied design, illustration, and writing at Syracuse University, received her M.F.A. from the School of Visual Arts in the Illustration as Visual Essay program, and she is currently a freelance illustrator and graphic designer.
 
Illustrator Eric Velasquez’s body of work comprises more than 300 book jackets and interior illustrations, including the award-winning picture books Journey to Jo'Burg by Beverly Naidoo and Jazmin's Notebook by Nikki Grimes, winner of the Coretta Scott King Award. He is the recipient of the 1999 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent and his book, The Sound that Jazz Makes, was nominated for an NAACP Image Award in children's literature.

Exhibitor Spotlight
The Free Library Festival's Street Fair & Literary Marketplace is the place for readers to discover new writers and explore what's new in the literary world! See the Festival Site Map.

Founded in 1974, McPherson & Company is an independent publishing house that features literary nonfiction and fiction (contemporary American and British fiction; translated Italian, French, and Spanish fiction), books on the arts and general culture, and a Recovered Classics series. Exhibiting at the Free Library Festival for the third year running, McPherson & Company will feature pre-publication copies of a new novel by Nicaraguan author Sergio Ramirez, A Thousand Deaths Plus One, as well as their very popular literary t-shirts, including one-of-a-kind tie-dyed versions.

Jerome P. Vanora | John's Song of Life, Booth #20

Framed as a philosophical dialogue between teacher and student centered on the question of whether man's soul or essence is immortal, John's Song of Life is an attempt to reach a conclusion by integrating the many diverse influences in Vanora's life. Inspired by Eastern and Western sources and traditions, as well as years of personal soul searching and his lifelong passion for philosophy, John's Song of Life is "an engrossing new read for new-age philosophers," according to Kirkus Reviews.