Determined to make as much of the San Antonio Book Festival as we could, we hurried over right after our basketball game to join in on the literary fun! The first annual San Antonio Edition of the Texas Book Festival happened a couple weekends ago, at the Central Library and this is how we spent our time there.

Bummed that we missed Carmen Tafolla, author of one of our favorite children's bilingual books, What Can you Do With A Paleta, we were happy to be just in time to see another favorite, Diane Gonzales Bertrand, author of Ricardo's Race. She was there to read her newest bilingual book, Sofia and the Purple Dress.

Diane read her story and explained the process of how a book gets written. After taking some questions from the audience, she made sure to leave some inspiration to the kids, letting them know that they could become authors and illustrators of their own books!

It was such a special day, because it is a rare occasion that you get to enjoy the view of the city from the 3rd floor terrace of the library!
After, we went to the courtyard and explored the Scholastic van, which always graciously ends with a free book of your choosing. There are also plenty of crafts and activities under the HEB tents.

Then, off to get a snack at the food trucks and to meet some friends and family outside of the Frost Garden of the Southwest School of Art, where music was playing.

We did get to see one more reading and I am so glad we decided to stay for author, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.

She read her book Grandma and the Great Gourd: A Bengali Folktale. She stood close to the audience and engaged us with her storytelling. The folktale had a repeating line that the kids remembered and repeated along with the author. In fact, my children are still singing that verse today!