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18th Annual Family Reading Festival
2025-02-08 10:00:00
2025-02-08 14:00:00
America/New_York
18th Annual Family Reading Festival
Sing, dance, and play with Jim Gill. See captive-born exotic animals up close and personal with Outback Ray. Visit with Bluey and Daniel Tiger. Enjoy literacy-rich activities. Take home a new book.
Main Library -
Saturday, February 08
10:00am - 2:00pm
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2025-02-08 10:00:00
2025-02-08 14:00:00
America/New_York
18th Annual Family Reading Festival
Sing, dance, and play with Jim Gill. See captive-born exotic animals up close and personal with Outback Ray. Visit with Bluey and Daniel Tiger. Enjoy literacy-rich activities. Take home a new book.
Main Library -
Sing, dance, and play with Jim Gill. See captive-born exotic animals up close and personal with Outback Ray. Visit with Bluey and Daniel Tiger. Enjoy literacy-rich activities. Take home a new book.
Performances:
10:30 am - He's Back! Musician Jim Gill's Sing-a-thon of Celebrated Songs.
11:30 am - Outback Ray and his amazing animal friends. See captive-born exotic animals up close and personal! Sponsored by the Lucy & Emily Beasley Charitable Trust.
1 pm - Jim Gill, afternoon matinee performance.
Drop-In:
10 am - 1 pm: Meet Bluey!
10 am - 1 pm: Meet Daniel Tiger from Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood! Sponsored by Ideastream Public Media.
10 - 1 pm - Local community organizations will share hands-on activities and information about services for families.
10 am - 2 pm - Each child in attendance will take home a free book. Sponsored in part by Children & Books.
11 am - 1 pm - Face Painting sponsored by the Friends of Main Library.
Jim Gill's Sing-a-thon of Celebrated Songs
Get ready to sing, clap, dance and spin along during this visit by award-winning musician and author Jim Gill. Jim Gill’s distinctive music play creates the spirit of a family room in the concert hall and is an invitation to children, parents and grandparents to sing and play together!
Jim Gill is a musician and author with unique credentials among children's artists. Jim is a child development specialist, completing his graduate studies in child development at the Erikson Institute of Chicago with a special emphasis on the study of play. For this reason, each of Jim's recordings and books is created as an opportunity for playful interactions between a child and a caring adult. Anyone who has experienced one of Jim's family concerts knows that rather than performing for the children and parents, Jim leads them to sing and play together.
Jim has released ten award-winning CDs of music play for young children that are favorites in family rooms, classrooms and playrooms. Jim is also the author of two children's books. A Soup Opera is a silly sing-along opera inspired by concerts that Jim performs with symphony orchestras. His first book, May There Always Be Sunshine, continues to inspire children from across the country to share their heartfelt wishes and extraordinary illustrations in community VIDEO book projects that Jim carries out with libraries, school districts and other community organizations.
AGE GROUP: | Preschool |
EVENT TYPE: | Special Events |
Main Library
Hours
About the branch
Drive-up Window closes fifteen minutes before the building closes for the day.
Main Library, located in the heart of downtown Akron, combines compelling public space with meaningful and relevant public library services for all members of our community. Since opening in 2004, the downtown library welcomes more than one million visitors each year.
Subject divisions include: Business, Government & Science, Culture & AV, Magazines & Newspapers, Special Collections (local history & genealogy), TechZone@Main, Teen, and a 12,000 square feet Children's Library.
Special services available at Main Library include: a Patent & Trademark Resource Center; U.S. Passport and Notary services; a Microbusiness Center; a Maker Space; a resource lab for early childhood educators; and regularly scheduled computer training classes. Also available at Main Library are more than 125 public access computers, color photocopiers/printers, laminating, scanning, faxing, and free Wi-Fi.
Specialized spaces include a 425-seat auditorium, public meeting rooms, and a used bookstore. An interior glass block walkway leads to a 600-space parking garage owned by the City of Akron. An outdoor amphitheater and landscaped park complete the complex.