History

Vivian Vande Velde created the Rochester Children’s Book Festival in 1997 when she had the idea that she wanted to celebrate the extraordinary number of children's writers in the Rochester area, to promote literacy, and to help Monroe County libraries. The first Festival was held to benefit the Friends of the Greece Public Library and took place at the Greece Baptist Church on Long Pond Road.

From the beginning, the goal was to have a day where children could meet and chat with authors, that there would be a program of storytelling, readings, and demonstrations throughout the day, and that books would be offered for sale--but there would be no admission fee to the event or to the presentations. That basic idea has remained the same over the years. 

Throughout the years, the Festival has grown in many ways:

• In 1997, the RCBF had 30 authors and/or illustrators; in 2016 there were 50.  Throughout the years, there have been 100 different authors and illustrators participating, some for only a year or two, but many on a continuing basis.

• The first year, there were presentations going on throughout the day, but only one at a time; now there are breakout sessions in three different locations, running simultaneously and serving a variety of ages and interests--as well as book-related craft activities all day long.

• For the first seven years, the festival moved from library to library and once was hosted by Strong Museum. In 2004, Jim Coffey (founder of 292-Baby and faculty member of Monroe Community College) secured MCC as a hosting sponsor, providing a large, free space for the Festival to grow. MCC has continued its hosting sponsorship ever since, and the RCBF can’t thank them enough. 

• With a permanent home, we also gained a permanent volunteer base as the group Rochester Area Children's Writers and Illustrators (RACWI) replaced the different Friends organizations. There are at least 100 volunteers helping on the day of the Festival, to answer people's questions, to help them find what they're looking for, and to keep things running smoothly.

• Lift Bridge Book Shop has provided the books for sale at the RCBF.

The RCBF has had several leaders:

• Vivian Vande Velde directed the Festival for the first 5 years (1997-2001). 

• Joan Baier took over for year 6 (2002).

• Carol Johmann was the leader for years 7 - 12 (2003 - 2008). 

• Sibby Falk and Kathy Blasi ran the Festival from 2009-2016. Under their leadership, the RCBF received the following recognitions:

  • 2011 Big Pencil Award from Writers & Books, recognizing the RCBF as “…an organization that has made significant contributions to the Rochester literary community.”

  • Also in 2011, the RCBF headlined as a “Gold Standard in Children’s Book Festivals” on the Publishers’ Weekly blog in an article, written by Elizabeth Bluemle.

  • In 2015, Kathy Blasi and Sibby Falk were presented with NYSRA’s Literacy Advocate Award for, “advocating literacy above and beyond their positions; demonstrating leadership and superiority through the nature of their work; and contributing work that has breadth, depth, and far-reaching influence.”

• Barbara Underhill and Vicki Schultz took over as co-directors in 2017, continuing the RCBF’s legacy of excellence. They were forced to cancel the 2020 book fest due to COVID and came back in 2021 with a virtual festival called Kids' Books ROC! In 2022, they brought on Jim Chaize as a third co-director to help with the challenge of changing venues to Rochester Institute of Technology, since MCC was still not holding events due to COVID.

• Jim Chaize and Ronny Frishman were co-directors in 2023 and 2024, bringing the 26th and 27th Annual RCBF back to its long-time home before COVID: Monroe Community College! They recruited an impressive group of about 50 authors & illustrators each year and improved the layout of the Author Mall to allow guests to more easily navigate through the busy room.

• In 2025, Mylisa Larsen joined Jim Chaize as a co-director and they are working on exciting changes, such as actively seeking to include more YA authors, tweens, and teens from here on out. They renamed the festival the Rochester Children and Teens Book Festival and recruited the help of the local librarians who used to put on the Teen Book Fest and strategized with them on the best ways to combine the two festivals into one.

The Rochester Children and Teens Book Festival has become an event that families, authors, and illustrators look forward to year after year. Children and teens enjoy meeting the talented authors and illustrators who bring their favorite characters to life, and those same authors and illustrators enjoy seeing how their work has brought joy to the lives of children and teens. 

Carol Johmann was the person who came up with the idea of Festival-To-Go in year 8 (2004) to benefit schools of the Rochester City School District. Vivian Vande Velde took over coordinating these visits in 2010. Volunteers from Rochester Area Children's Writers and Illustrators (RACWI) visit 1 - 4 schools each year in October to try to get students excited about reading, writing, and sharing their own stories. Altrusa of Rochester volunteers help presenters around the schools the days of the visits AND provide some money to buy presenters' books for the schools' libraries. In addition, the FtG has received grants from several local foundations as well as the UPS Store's Toys for Tots Literacy Program, which have allowed us to donated a book to each child in over twenty city schools. 

2024 RCBF Inspiration Award:

Nikki Grimes

For her incredible contributions to children's literature and her dedication to attending and supporting the RCBF. We've been lucky to have this award-winning author come all the way from California many times to share her poetic works with the children of Rochester.

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2024 RCBF Appreciation Award:

Lift Bridge Book Shop

For their tremendous support as the RCBF's book seller for many, many years, this award was presented to John & Sarah Bonczyk and their children in a heartwarming presentation to open the 2024 Festival. Untold hours and monetary investment go into their work on our behalf every year.  

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2022 RCBF Inspiration Award:

Carol Johmann, Elizabeth Falk, and Kathleen Blasi 

For directing the RCBF for many years and making it better and better. Carol was director from 2003-2008, securing MCC as our hosting sponsor and starting the Festival to Go outreach program with Rochester City Schools in 2004. Elizabeth and Kathleen co-directed the RCBF from 2009-2016, winning the Writers & Books Big Pencil Award and NYSRA's Literacy Advocate Award.

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2020 RCBF Appreciation Award: 

Wegmans

For being our most generous annual sponsor for many years, enabling the RCBF to reach more and more children with high quality, impactful interactions with authors and illustrators. (Though we had to cancel the in-person festival in 2020, we still sent Wegmans their award.)

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2019 RCBF Inspiration Award: 

Vivian Vande Velde

For founding the RCBF 23 years prior, directing it the first five years, chairing the Festival-to-Go for 10 years, and leading the fund-drive that provided free books to all FtG students in 2019.

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2019 RCBF Special Recognition: 

Altrusa International of Rochester

For 15 years of supporting the Festival-to-Go 

2018 RCBF Inspiration Award: 

Jane Yolen

Recognizing the publication of her 365th book and her storied career

2017 RCBF Appreciation Award: 

Monroe Community College (Dr. Anne Kress) and 292-Baby (Jim Coffey)

For being hosting sponsors of the RCBF since 2004, enabling the event to promote literacy for thousands of Rochesterians each year.

2016 RCBF Inspiration Award: 

Linda Sue Park, Salva Dut, and Vicki Schultz

For Dut’s incredible work bringing water to South Sudan; for Park’s book A Long Walk to Water, which sold over a million copies and raised over a million dollars for Water for South Sudan; and for Schultz’s fundraising efforts that led to a new RCBF well in South Sudan.