Stay Home and Read a Book Ball on Feb. 17 to raise funds for Children's Festival of Reading

Friends of the Knox County Public Library will host its fourth annual Stay Home and Read a Book Ball on Saturday, Feb. 17. Funds raised during the non-event will help fund the Knox County Public Library's Children Festival of Reading. Readers are encouraged to donate what they would have spent on a night out.

Each year, thousands of area families converge on World's Fair Park for a day of reading fun. The annual event brings storytellers, musicians, authors, illustrators, and numerous community organizations to World's Fair Park to kick off the Summer Library Club. The 18^th Children's Festival of Reading will be held at World's Fair Park on Saturday, May 18. Read about the 2023 festival at https://www.knoxcountylibrary.org/childrens-festival-of-reading.

The honorary chairs for the Stay Home and Read a Book Ball are Knoxville artist/illustrator Daniel Wiseman and author/retired UT professor Doris Gove. Wiseman is the illustrator of The World Needs More Purple People and The World Needs More Purple Schools by Kristen Bell & Benjamin Hart and other books for children. Gove's books for children include My Mother Talks to Trees, One Rainy Night, Red-Spotted Newt, and A Water Snake's Year.

Book ball donations can be made online at https://www.knoxfriends.org/stay-home-and-read-a-book-ball or by mailing a check to the Friends office at 500 W. Church Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37902. All donors will receive a one-time coupon code good for 20% off at Union Ave Books