A Look Back at 20 Years of the Children’s Festival of Reading

The 20th anniversary Children’s Festival of Reading takes over World’s Fair Park this Saturday, a milestone for the longest continually running children’s literary festival in the country. 

By happy chance, I ran into Mary Pom Claiborne, Knox County Public Library’s director of marketing, development and communications, on Gay Street earlier this week and we ducked into Coffee & Chocolate for a spontaneous chat about the festival’s history.

The very first Festival of Reading, she recalls, was June 4, 2005. She’d been at the Library for less than a year and remembers being surprised by how enthusiastically the community embraced the idea right out of the gate. The Knoxville News-Sentinel donated a full-page, full-color ad to help spread the word, and despite the hot, muggy weather, families poured in by the hundreds. 

And they didn’t even have any authors that first year. Since then it’s grown into what Mary Pom calls the “Bonnaroo” of children’s literature. Previous years have brought big-name creators like Mo Willems (Knuffle Bunny, Elephant and Piggie), Judy Schachner (Skippyjon Jones) and Anna Dewdney (Llama Llama) to Knoxville’s youngest readers. This year’s lineup of world-class authors and illustrators includes the 2026 One Book Read City author, Erin Falligant — our first-grader just excitedly showed us the copy of Wind Riders: Search for the Scarlet Macaws he brought home from school.

“You know, we revere musicians and actors and athletes, and I think on the adult level, we have the John Grishams and David Baldaccis and people like that,” she says. “The children’s writers, though, most people don’t really know their name. But there’s a lot of evidence that when a kid meets an author, it really does spike their interest in reading and sparks their interest in writing and drawing.”

The Children’s Festival of Reading has received the Kaleidoscope Award for the best children’s event by the Southeastern Festivals and Events Association for the past two years running. As a parent myself – we go to the festival every year – I appreciate that the festival engages kids with creative activities, from storytelling and music to crafts and Dr. Al Hazari’s beloved “The Magic of Science” demonstrations. 

A festival favorite is the Parade of Books at 11 a.m., where everyone is invited to grab a book poster and march along.

“I love that we don’t have any bounce houses. Every festival has those for the kids, and they’ll just suck them right in,” Mary Pom says. “We really want to keep the focus on imagination and creativity.”

The festival also marks the launch of Knox County Public Library’s summer programs. “Summer is a great time to fall in love with reading,” says Mary Pom.

The festival takes place this Saturday, May 16, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at World’s Fair Park. Mary Pom notes that it has never once in 20 years rained a single drop on the festival, and this year’s forecast is unlikely to break the streak – it’s looking like 87 degrees and sunny. Learn about the festival and view the full schedule here.

The Knox County Public Library shared these photos with us from festivals past:

There is LOTS of family-friendly fun to be had this weekend! Open Streets Knoxville returns on Sunday, May 17, from 2 to 6 p.m., closing down Gay Street to cars and opening it up for an exciting afternoon of community connection and active fun. 

Also on Sunday from 2 to 6 p.m.: With the Gay Street Bridge open to pedestrians and cyclists and a free KAT “SoKno Shuttle,” you can easily bounce across the river to catch the 9th annual Cattywampus Puppet Council Parade & Block Party at Suttree Landing Park. Themed “Where the Waters Meet,” the parade steps off at 3 p.m. and will be followed by a party on the festival lawn with live music, art, play and ecology activities for all ages. 

Always so much going on in and around downtown Knoxville! Take advantage of our 10-Day Planner to lock in those weekend plans.

Happy 20th anniversary, Children’s Festival of Reading! Here’s a gallery of photos from IOK‘s own archives. Also of note, this is IOK‘s 5,000th post!