Patricia Willers headline-57618 2011-09-23T03:02:33Z 2011-09-23T03:02:33Z <p> This weekend, <a href="http://www.fairytaletown.org/" target="_blank">Fairytale Town</a> will host the 11th Annual ScholarShare Children's Book Festival. The festival will include&nbsp;hands-on literacy activities for children, dramatic performances and readings and presentations by numerous authors and illustrators.&nbsp;The event will feature a special appearance by Olympic figure skater <a href="http://www.kristiyamaguchi.com/" target="_blank">Kristi Yamaguchi</a>.</p> <p> Yamaguchi will read her first book, &quot;Dream Big, Little Pig!&quot; on Saturday on the Mother Goose Stage at 3:00 p.m. The 2011 release by <a href="http://www.sourcebooks.com/" target="_blank">Sourcebooks Jabberwocky</a> debuted at No. 2 on the <a href="http://www.sourcebooks.com/publicity/1679-kristi-yamaguchis-dream-big-little-pig-debuts-at-2-on-the-new-york-times-bestseller-list.html" target="_blank">New York Times Bestseller List</a>. &quot;Dream Big, Little Pig!&quot; was illustrated by Tim Bowers.</p> <p> Fairytale Town will host the book festival this Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 24 and 25. Opening hours are 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Thanks to the generosity of the ScholarShare College Savings Plan, guests are offered free admission&nbsp;throughout the&nbsp;weekend.</p> <p> Author and illustrator presentations will be taking place on Mother Goose Stage on both Saturday and Sunday. Local authors featured at the event include Sacramento local, <a href="http://www.macmillan.com/author/triciabrown" target="_blank">Tricia Brown</a>,&nbsp;and Davis elementary school teacher, <a href="http://www.nikkishannonsmith.com" target="_blank">Nikki Smith</a>.</p> <p> Other notable children’s book authors and illustrators include Gianna Marino, Gretchen Maurer, Bethanie Murguia, Jeff Savage, Dashka Slater, Mira Reisberg, Jorge Argueta, Francisco Alarcon, Sue Fliess, Dianne Danzig, Ann Bowler and Janie Havemeyer.</p> <p> Hands-on activities will be available throughout the weekend in addition to literacy activities and information and presentations sponsored by local arts organizations.</p> <p> This weekend’s ScholarShare book festival will also be broadcast on <a href="http://www.accesssacramento.org/" target="_blank">Access Sacramento</a> cable channel 17.</p> <p> Sponsors for this year’s ScholarShare Children's Book Festival include ScholarShare College Savings Plan, KVIE, MIX 96, The Sacramento Bee, The Rivercats Foundation, Shirley Plant, Wells Fargo, IKEA and Sierra Health Foundation.</p> Patricia Willers 2011-09-23T03:02:33Z