One Book Two Book Festival in Iowa City will kick off on February 26th

on Feb 10, 2022

Iowa City’s every year celebration of children’s literature and student authors will return for its 11th year later this month. This year’s One Book Two Book festival will feature both online and in-person events for people. The event is organized by the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature organization and will kick off on February 26th, Saturday.

“Always in this community, it's so special because people just love books here, and I'm just continually grateful and surprised by that,” said Rachael Carlson, the organization’s director of operations."A lot of that is because of our partners at the schools here in the Eastern Iowa corridor, especially the librarians, the media specialists, who have just worked with us on this festival so hard and encouraged their students to write and submit,“ she continued.

Last year’s celebration was all virtual due to Covid-19, however, this year’s event will organize online events as well. Carlson said this year there will not be a Friday night banquet like in previous years and they are transitioning to more outdoor events. Events on February 26th include storytimes sessions and activities at the Ped Mall in downtown Iowa City. Clifford the Big Red Dog, Wild Thing, Taco Dragon, and Zoom squirrel are going to make special appearances at the events throughout the weekend.

They are doing fun activities like ice skating which will start at 10 am and end at 4 pm. The free skating and skate rental are sponsored by Green State Credit Unio and the Iowa City Downtown District. Players from the Iowa Heartlanders hockey team and book characters are the special appearances of the event. There will be three storytimes sessions from 10:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. The public libraries in Iowa City, Coralville, and North Liberty will each have an event. Sidekick Coffee and Books in Iowa City will have storytimes at noon with owner Katy Herbold. On the Ped Mall will be a book fair and book drive from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., as well as an activity from noon to 4 p.m. asking kids to respond to a writing prompt about what “home” means to them.