The Love of Reading: Chappaqua Children’s Book Fest Draws Huge Crowd

A little more than an hour into last Saturday’s Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival, author Diane deGroat ran out of her Halloween-themed book and only had a copy or two left of her Thanksgiving story.

It wasn’t only the seasonal nature of those two works that the author and illustrator suddenly found in short supply. The annual festival at the Metro-North train station parking lot may have been the best attended in its 11-year history, with parking scarce in the large train station parking lot by late morning.

“There’s so much energy,” remarked Alicia Mott-Comitto, a relatively new Briarcliff Manor-based author, who brought her first two titles with her, “Flick Sends a Valentine” and “Flick and the Disappearing Tooth.” “I love meeting other authors. It’s great just getting face time with people, and see all the joy and the love of reading. It’s just amazing.”

Children also loved the chance to interact with the roughly 160 writers and illustrators that were on hand for the event. Some families and authors traveled great distances from throughout the tristate area and around the country to experience one of the top children’s book festivals.

Kelly Thomas came up from Brooklyn with her son Kieran to take in the festival for the first time. It was even better than she expected.

“I’m very pleased,” said Thomas. “This is a great treat, and it’s just so great to get excited about reading. I knew the authors were going to be here, but I didn’t realize so many were going to be here.”

The rain held off for most of the event, and it was comfortably cool, which helped swell the crowds. That made festival Executive Director Dawn Greenberg happy after all the planning and preparation.

Greenberg said it was heartening to see so many families enjoying themselves and the children looking forward to meeting their favorite authors.

“(The authors) all have their fans,” she said. “They all have their built-in fan base.”

A return festival visitor was Brett Bartley of Manhattan, attending with his sister and her family, who traveled from Ohio. Both his sister and brother-in-law are teachers so they had plenty of incentive to make the trip, Bartley said.

While he had attended previously, Bartley said he didn’t recall the large assortment of authors that were on display last Saturday.

“I think it’s the sheer number of writers and illustrators who attend, and a wide variety of the types or writers and illustrators,” he said.

Along with the books, there were games and activities for the children and food trucks for the public to get lunch.

For the first time, members of the Chappaqua Congress of Teachers were in attendance as an organization to help patrons find their way around the grounds Some saw their students who stopped by to greet them.

Although Horace Greeley High School teacher Brian Petruso didn’t see many of his students, he and his colleagues weren’t going to miss a chance to promote reading.

“We support literacy; we love reading,” Petruso said. “I’m an English teacher, so to see all the future readers that I’ll see in 10 and 15 years is very exciting.”

Westorchard Elementary School second-grade teacher Mary Goff said she met some of her students at the festival. It was heartwarming for her to see because reading is critically important for people of all ages.

“It’s so great to see so many people buying books, right, and really enjoying the day and meeting authors,” she said.