Tweens Read, the book festival for middle school students led in part by Department of Curriculum & Instruction (CUIN) assistant clinical professor Margaret Hale, has had another phenomenal turn out.

Held at South Houston High School on October 22, 2016, the event gathered 32 authors to speak to and meet the Houston-area school children in attendance.  The event is targeted toward 5^th to 8^th graders and encourages them to interact with established authors in order to promote reading.

Author Jason Reynolds was this year’s keynote speaker. Growing up, Reynolds was a reluctant reader. In fact, he was 17 before he ever finished reading a novel. Now Reynolds is a National Book Award Nominee. “It’s not that boys hate to read,” Reynolds said. “It’s that boys hate boredom. I hated books for the same reason they hate books.” He’s made it his mission to ensure that books reflecting they way kids think and talk are out there on shelves.

After Reynolds’ keynote, the day was broken up into smaller panels, where the students could hear their favorite authors answer questions and then attend book signings in the gym. As the event wound down, many of the participating authors took to Twitter to praise the event. Jo Knowles, author of SEE YOU AT HARRY’S, says, “The Tweens Read event was one of the most inspiring events I’ve done. So grateful to have been invited.”

The event is now in it’s sixth year and has seen quite the increase in student participation. “The first year we had about 300 participants,” says Hale, “so there has been a steady uptick.  This year we had 2,400, about 400 more than last year.”