Orange County Children\u2019s Book Festival<\/a>, which returns for its 22nd annual event to Orange Coast College on Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.<\/p>\n\u201cIt was a great event,\u201d said Harris, who has come back every year since. \u201cSo many people, a lot of supporters. I told them about my story, told them about the book, about diversity, disability and inclusion \u2026 You get families from all over, teachers, as well, just everyone coming together to support writers, so it\u2019s truly a wonderful time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Admission is free to the festival, which this year will feature New York Times bestselling author and illustrator Rachel Ignotofsky. Other headliners include authors and comedians Jes\u00fas Trejo and Melissa Villase\u00f1or.<\/p>\n
The scheduled programming includes interviews and live readings from participating authors on four stages. Families can enjoy free train rides on campus, character encounters, and hands-on activities. There will also be an assortment of food trucks on site.<\/p>\n
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Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, left, speaks during the 2019 Orange County Children\u2019s Book Festival, an event that returns to Orange Coast College Sunday.<\/p>\n
(Michelle Burns)<\/p>\n
Stephanie Morales, the communications lead for the festival, said \u201creading is everywhere,\u201d even if it\u2019s being redefined beyond the words on the page. It also brings families together.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I\u2019ve interviewed and spoken to families, \u2026 everybody there is super excited, and it\u2019s really great to see that families are coming together,\u201d Morales said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about the kids. The parents need to be interested in those books, too, because they\u2019re going to be reading them. Those authors, this is their life, and they\u2019re such great people, such great stories.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve heard that [the families have] heard about the festival from teachers \u2026 I think there is that love of storytelling \u2026 Engaging and connecting with community and people is our strong point.\u201d<\/p>\n
Apart from the festival, Harris also enjoys author visits in local classrooms, where she can read to and connect with her audience while also imparting lessons for interpersonal communication.<\/p>\n
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Children\u2019s literature author Charity Harris will participate in the Orange County Children\u2019s Book Festival at Orange Coast College.<\/p>\n
(Eric Licas)<\/p>\n
\u201cThe kids can see I\u2019m in a wheelchair, so of course they have questions, and I\u2019m so excited to answer any questions they do have,\u201d Harris said. \u201cI\u2019m very comfortable with my disability, and I want to be able to share that with kids to show that there\u2019s nothing wrong with asking questions, and there\u2019s nothing wrong with approaching someone who is disabled \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to ask about their disability, you can also do that, but there\u2019s a fine way to do it. Don\u2019t just stare at them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charity Harris did everything by the book. After completing a college degree, she set out to find work,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,5661,32541,184036,3409,14211,5615,1431,1520,23339,184037,13889,184038,6850,1968,72],"class_list":["post-467299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-author","tag-book-festival","tag-charity-harris","tag-child","tag-communication","tag-disability","tag-family","tag-interview","tag-many-people","tag-orange-county-children","tag-reading","tag-stephanie-morales","tag-wheelchair","tag-work","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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