Forest of Reading Festival 2023: Network, Navigate, Need

 Tuesday, May 16 and Wednesday, May 17 were big days at my school because we weren't at my school. We were at the OLA Forest of Reading Festival at Harbourfront. This is the first time since 2019 that the Forest of Reading Festival has been an in-person event. I provided three "N"s to help guide the themes of my reflection on these wonderful two days. I'll address them in reverse order.

Need

There was a hunger to return to this kind of literary celebration. My school had a record number of students presenting and carrying signs as part of the awards ceremonies, with 18 students total involved. We had a smaller number than usual qualify to vote and attend the festival, with 44 students on May 16 and 19 students on May 17, but with a three year interruption, those are decent numbers. We also need to thank a lot of people for making the trip and event possible. Meredith Tutching is the Director of the Forest of Reading at OLA. Then there's Ruth Gretsinger and Isabella Hobbs, the co-chairs of the Forest of Reading program. There are also the members of the Forest Selection Committees, the Forest Steering Committees, the OLA staff members and volunteers. The combination of the authors and the readers are what makes it feel like a rock concert. Thank you to all the authors that were able or chose to attend. On the school side of things, I'm grateful for the teachers who read some of the nominated titles and chatted with the students so they could have their passports signed. Our staff trip supervisors were Lisa Daley, Renee Keberer, and Shanu Thiyagalingam. We also had six parent/grandparent volunteers come along on May 16, so we had many extra hands and eyes to take care of our students. 

We needed to gather together and celebrate reading. Just look at this photo, taken at the moment that the winner of the Silver Birch Fiction Award was announced.

Below is a photo of the Red Maple Awards stage.

This is a closer shot of the Silver Birch Express ceremony in progress.

There was also a need to change things up a bit. Instead of three award ceremonies in a single day, there were two. Other ceremonies were shared virtually. The switch made sense because it's tricky to travel down in time for the past schedule (with awards at 10:00, 11:30, and 1:00 - this year, the awards were at 10:30 am and 12:00 noon; the new format felt less rushed). Speaking of travel ...

Navigate

Getting down to Harbourfront is a lot harder than in the past. School buses are almost impossible to book at this time and the companies insist on very early departure times. Taking the TTC isn't a great choice either, partly because it takes so long and because it's not as safe as it used to be. Thankfully we had a third option we employed that worked for us - using the GO Train. The nearest GO Train station isn't exactly close to our school. For the GTA Resource Fair, we walked from school to the train station. For the Heritage Fair, we shuttled students in cars to the train station. For the Forest of Reading Festival, there were too many students to use private vehicles, so we walked part of the way and took a short TTC bus ride to the train station. As Ms. Thiya reminded me when we did the GO trek in the fall of 2022 for the GTA Resource Fair, travelling via train was part of the adventure. For several of our students, this was their first time on the GO Train. From Union Station, it was a manageable walk south and west to Harbourfront. Obtaining tickets for the older students (GO is free for students younger than 13) and the teachers became easier the more I had to do it, but I wish that there was a way we could use the school Presto Cards. Buying a group set of GO Train fares online meant I had to pay the non-discounted price. 

Network

Some of our students actually attended both days. We wondered if they would find it boring or repetitive to go twice but that didn't seem to be the case. In fact, it seemed to help the students understand how to best use their time the following day. One of the students actually had a specific request of me: introduce him to as many of the people I knew as possible. He wanted to make connections and network with as many individuals and organizations during his time at the festival. I was amazed and impressed by his goal. I don't think I was that focused or ambitious when I was in middle school. The students made sure to take advantage of all that the Forest of Reading Festival had to offer. It's easy to get obsessed with buying yummy food, but I found that this year, our students, especially our Red Maple participants, collected autographs AND attended workshops AND cheered for their peers at the awards ceremony AND won book prizes AND enjoyed the free entertainment, in addition to feasting.

The Forest of Reading Festival is a great place to network. You can meet authors, publishers, school library professionals from other schools/boards, and other important/influential people. For me, it's a happy place to reconnect. Here are some (but not all) of the selfies I took. (Note: if your photo is on here and you'd like me to remove it because I didn't get explicit consent, please let me know and I will happily remove it.)

Thank you everyone. I was exhausted but elated afterwards. (I took two hour naps each evening to recover!) The Forest of Reading fun may be officially over for the OLA, but not for our school. Quiz Bowl and Red Maple Marketing will be coming up in June. I'll share more about those events after they occur. 

Post Script Addition: The Importance of Authors

My mind is often writing these blog posts ahead of time, and I realized that I had forgotten a focus I originally intended.

First, a confession: when I saw Rosena Fung at the OLA Forest of Reading Festival, I cried. (You can't tell me because I was wearing sunglasses when I took the photo of us.) Here is the photo again.

I wept because I was trying to tell her what her book meant to me. I passed along Living with Viola to a family member to read. That family member loved it and cried at least three times while reading it, saying that Fung captured their own feelings of anxiety and dealing with pressure. Rosena was gracious with my blubbered compliments and said it meant a lot to hear that.

Authors are amazing.

Authors are powerful.

I spoke with Colleen Nelson, the winner of the 2023 Silver Birch Fiction Award for her novel, The Undercover Book List. We are part of a mutual admiration society. I like Colleen's books and, remarkably, Colleen has heard of me. This is a photo of us together at the OLA SuperConference a couple months ago.

I had to tell Colleen how transformative her book was, especially to the young student who introduced her on stage, who went from a reluctant reader to an avid book consumer because of The Undercover Book List. Colleen tried to deflect or share the praise by saying that the student (one from my school) had a fantastic teacher-librarian that grew the love of reading. 

"No Colleen," I replied. "It wasn't me. It was you. You and your book."

Authors are amazing.

Authors are powerful.

Not one, not two, but three authors at the OLA Forest of Reading Festival gave their student presenters a free autographed copy of their book to thank them for their efforts creating the introductory speeches. Thank you Eric Walters. Thank you Alma Fullerton. (And thank you again, Colleen Nelson.)

Authors are amazing.

Authors are powerful.