The Mission High School and Alton Memorial Junior High School libraries teamed up to bring 20 distinguished authors to Rio Grande Valley youth for the first-of-its-kind teen book festival, Border Book Bash: Celebrating Teens and Tweens this Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The free event, open to all Valley teens, is a labor of love for MHS librarian Margie Longoria. “We’ve never had a festival exclusively for teens,” she said. “They’re either for adults or children, especially elementary.”
However, Longoria felt the void needed to be filled to help young adults envision themselves as future published writers. The nearest event of this kind is held in Corpus Christi, but she said many Mission CISD students may not have the resources to travel even the couple of hours. Bringing the authors to teens and having them see that a lot of the authors look a lot like them ensures that Valley youth expand their perceptions of what is attainable, “so that they won’t see where they’re from and their ethinicity as a deterrent.”
The Border Book Bash will be held Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., at Alton Memorial Junior High, 521 S. Los Ebanos Rd. in Alton. The event is free to the public. Books will be available for purchase on site.