ELMIRA, N.Y. (WETM) – Family Reading Partnership of Chemung Valley will be presenting Book Fest 2023 this Sunday, May 21st at Wisner Park in Downtown Elmira.

The event will feature lots of literacy centered fun for the children in our community and their families. There will also be free games, activities, a basket raffle, food trucks and entertainment.

“It is an opportunity to come together and celebrate reading and books,” said event coordinator Michelle Halperin. “We have a lot of community organizations including community arts of Elmira and a whole lot of groups that will be coming out and presenting all kinds of activities that center on reading.”

A lot of the activities available to participate in on Sunday will center around this year’s event theme of ‘Be bold, be brave, be you!’

“This was a theme that we thought is perfect for right now,” said Halperin. “We want to teach kids to be who they are and to be true to yourself.”

This year`s Book Fest will also bring children’s author Matthew McElligott to our area. Matt`s books feature a variety of humorous and bold characters. He will be talking about what it’s like to be an author at the event.

“Sometimes reading is looked at as a chore by children. It’s something obviously that we do in school and every teacher wants to try and promote reading as a fun opportunity. We want to promote reading as a fun thing, something to we do for enjoyment, something that we do for comfort.”

For more information about the event, you can click here or watch the full interview above.