12th Annual Children’s Book Festival of Johnstown Goes Virtual

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Johnstown, PA (March 22, 2021) – The 12^th Annual Children’s Book Festival of Johnstown takes on a new look in 2021 with a powerhouse lineup of award-winning guest authors and illustrators from the past! Look for familiar names like Sherri Rinker, author of the bestselling Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site Series, and Bad Kitty author/illustrator Nick Bruel. The festival is also excited to welcome back Debbie Dadey, author of hugely popular chapter book series The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids and Mermaid Tales, and the man behind the Stick Dog and Stick Cat book series, author Tom Watson. Additionally, the lineup includes children’s poet Kenn Nesbitt, whose website Poetry4Kids.com is the most popular children’s poetry website in the world. Plus, renowned illustrator Stacy Innerst, winner of the New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Books Award for Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and festival favorite and nationally known cartoonist and Master Maze Maker Joe Wos.

Unable to hold an in-person festival this year due to ongoing social distancing restrictions but unwilling to cancel the event and have children and families miss out on the fun, The 2021 Children’s Book Festival turned to a web-based format that features dozens of custom-recorded, video-based storytelling, age-appropriate writing and drawing workshops for younger and older kids, links to cool hands-on activities, and more—and not just for the standard weekend—but for the entire month of April!

Children, parents, and teachers can access the 12^th Annual Children’ Book Festival through The Learning Lamp’s Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/CBFJohnstown/ beginning April 1 and continuing through April 30, 2021. Virtual festivalgoers can also access all videos and resources directly from The Learning Lamp’s website at thelearninglamp.org. Click on “For Families” tab to find the Children’s Book Festival of Johnstown page. (Please note that author/illustrator presentations and resources will not be available until 10 a.m. on April 1 and will remain accessible through April 30.)

Traditionally, the annual festival gives each child a free book to add to their own library at home, and this year is no exception. The Learning Lamp has partnered with three libraries in the Cambria-Somerset region to give away a limited supply of classic and newly published books from our headlining authors. Participating libraries include:

• Cambria County Library, 236 Main Street in Johnstown
• Somerset County Library, 6022 Glades Pike Ste 120 in Somerset
• Northern Cambria Library, 4200 Crawford Ave in Northern Cambria

Presented by Kranich’s Jewelers, The Learning Lamp’s 12^th Annual Children’s Book Festival of Johnstown is made possible by Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding through the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). The festival was also supported, in part, by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA), a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts. PCA funding through the PA Partners in the Arts Program was distributed by regional partner, the Westmoreland Museum of American Art.

The Learning Lamp is a nonprofit organization with a mission to engage all children in the support they need to succeed. We deliver high quality programs that are affordable and accessible to families of all income levels. In 2020, The Learning Lamp served 28,938 youth/adults from 51 public school districts and 36 other schools and organizations in 13 Pennsylvania counties.

 Our programs include: one-to-one tutoring; before/after school programs; portable classrooms aimed at building math and science skills; alternative education programs for at-risk students; evidence-based prevention programs; online learning and credit recovery; SAT preparation; educationally-focused child care; literacy-based preschool programs; and grant writing and project consulting for schools.