About the Program

The Texas Book Festival’s Reading Rock Stars program is a hands-on literacy initiative that sends nationally recognized authors into Title I elementary schools in Texas to inspire young readers with dynamic presentations and send them home with the most empowering experience of all – owning their very own book. The Texas Book Festival funds and coordinates the author visits and donates the books to the children as well as a set of books to each school’s library.

The program currently serves schools in Austin, the Rio Grande Valley, Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, and El Paso with a strategic plan to grow the number of schools served in each geographic area. We commit to our Reading Rock Stars partner schools to bring the program to them for three consecutive years, so we invite interested schools to subscribe to the TBF newsletter and follow us on all social media channels @texasbookfest to learn when applications are open in their region.

Visit our Reading Rock Stars Photo Gallery to see some of the highlights from the last decade of the program!

Impact

Since the inception of the program, the Texas Book Festival has donated more than 166,000 books to students in Title I schools and provided 757 author visits.

Authors and Illustrators

Previous Reading Rock Stars authors include: Erin Entrada Kelly, Kwame Alexander, Ibi Zoboi, Christian Robinson, Raina Telgemeier, Monica Brown, Michaela Goade, Don Tate, Mac Barnett, Dan Santat, Christina Soontornvat, Vanessa Brantley-Newton, Raúl the Third, Derrick Barnes, and Elisa Chavarri.

Visit our Reading Rock Stars Authors & Illustrators page to see which of your favorite children’s book creators have joined us for Reading Rock Stars over the years!

For Educators