Book Fair

Baltimore City50,000 children's books goal of kids' campaignVolunteers will collect donations of children's books Saturdayat Western High School, near Falls Road and Cold Spring Lane, in the annual Books for Kids Day campaign.The goal this year is 50,000 new or used books that will be distributed to low-income families and improve the library collections at 28 city elementary schools. The campaign is sponsored by the Sylvan Foundation, with support and in-kind donations from Bell Atlantic Yellow Pages and Von Paris Moving & Storage.

Book signings, literary workshops, book sales and a silent auction of signed first- and limited-edition books will be featured at the second annual Random House Book Fair to Benefit the Carroll Community College Foundation.The event, jointly sponsored by the publishing company and college, will be held from 9: 30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at CCC's 1601 Washington Road campus.Billed as a cultural and intellectual activity, the event's main purpose is to raise money for student scholarships, but also to provide a fun day for book lovers.

Nationally recognized poets Julia Wendell and Bruce A. Jacobs will be among the featured guests at the Poetry Place at the Coffeehouse at the Random House Book Fair on Saturday at Carroll Community College.Other poets will include Virginia Crawford, Barbara DeCesare, Rosemary Klein, Sam Schmidt, Kathleen Adcock, Alan Bogage, Joanne Bowen, Kim Neimeyer and Susan Tegeler.Music by pianist Karen Friedland will alternate with poetry readings from 10 a.m. to 3: 30 p.m. in the ground-floor atrium of the college's Learning Resources Center.

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- The problems of African libraries include those familiar anywhere, such as funding, staffing and keeping up with advancing technology. But in Zimbabwe, librarians also must find books in 19 local languages and 43 dialects.But there is no shortage of enthusiasm. In honor of the Zimbabwe International Book Fair last summer, war veterans who had been demonstrating for higher pensions suspended their protest. Youth and children's groups treated the assembled publishers, book-sellers and librarians to dramatic readings and musical performances extolling the importance of books in their lives.

YOUNG PEOPLE from Wesley-Freedom United Methodist Church in Eldersburg recently traveled to Nassau in the Bahamas to give a little of themselves. They learned a great deal in the process.Through "Mission Discovery," a sponsor organization, the group of 17 teens and three adults spent a week at Boys' Industrial School in Nassau building personal relationships and guiding Christian relationships.Wesley-Freedom youth leaders Bob and Sally Jacoby were joined by Jeremiah Washington, a South Carolina minister and founder of CHILD (Community Hands in Love and Development)

WEARING WETSUITS and carrying an assortment of plastic beach toys, Oklahoma Road Middle School Principal Larry Barnes and Assistant Principal Cathy Hood sat on a drop seat awaiting the inevitable.The two administrators agreed to be dunked last Wednesday in exchange for students raising a particular amount during the school's recent PTA "Twistin' the Day Away" fund-raiser.Any student who collected pledges of $25 or more had a chance to hit the target and send one of the administrators into the tank.

It will be a gathering of Carroll County's writing talent and aspirations in one spot, in a first-time fair to celebrate and explore the written word.From 9: 30 a.m. to 4 p.m. tomorrow at Carroll Community College, Random House Book Fair will feature local authors in workshops, round-table and panel discussions, plus a silent auction of signed, first-edition and limited-edition books."I think it's very adventuresome of them to do it and to give the public a chance to participate in all the workshops they're giving," said Susan White-Bowden, one of the most experienced authors who will give advice at a workshop.

LOOKING FOR something comforting to do now that winter has lost its charm? Local elementary students recommend curling up with a good book.Carrolltowne Elementary School students and their parents found Wednesday evening the perfect time to enjoy reading together. Families brought blankets and their favorite reading materials to the school's cafeteria for Family Reading Night.The event highlighted the importance of reading and the fun of reading together. The evening also kicked off the school's annual book fair, which gives students an opportunity to buy high-quality books at reasonable prices and to help their school.

I WENT TO the book festival Saturday because I'm a book junkie and because it seemed like a good idea, at least until it started to rain.If you don't think about it too hard, a book festival downtown makes perfect sense. Baltimore, a city that lives to do fairs, was looking for a new excuse to bring people into the city.And Baltimore is, as we all know, the city that reads.We all know this because we've all seen the slogan on the backs of park benches and, occasionally, on the sides of slow-moving city buses.

Rare things and old booksFor rare collector books and antiques, attend the Baltimore Summer Antiques and Antiquarian Book Fair this weekend at the Baltimore Convention Center. Seventy antiquarian book dealers will offer illustrated books, first editions, autographed books and more. The show is presented in conjunction with the antiques fair. Hours are noon to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. The $6 admission is good for repeated entry. Children 14 and younger are admitted free.

Two schools receive beautification grants Two Harford elementary schools have received county grants that will help volunteers complete several beautification projects. County Executive David R. Craig, who visited both schools last week, commended their PTA volunteers. The program "is an excellent example of an effective government initiative that brings schools, the parent community and businesses together," he said. A $10,000 grant for Riverside Elementary brings to more than $65,000 the funds dedicated to upgrading the playground on the Joppa campus, a project that parent volunteers have tackled for nearly a year.

Axxam and Mustafa Sassy are headed to Germany and Egypt on vacation this month with a bag full of books. The two middle schoolers received 34 of them at a summer book fair at their school, Arundel Middle. Mustafa, 12, who plays soccer, already started reading Keeper by Mal Peet, a story about a goalie. Axxam, 10, dug into The Revenge of the Shadow King by Derek Benz and J.S. Lewis, about four kids who discover that the goblins and fairies featured in their card game are appearing in their Minnesota town.

Book fair and dance performance -- The Ballet Theatre of Maryland will hold a book fair and mini-performance at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Barnes & Noble Cafe in the Annapolis Harbour Center, 2516 Solomons Island Road. Dancers will perform highlights of their upcoming production of "The Nutcracker" as a part of the "Taste of the Ballet" series. 410-263-8289.

The 10th annual Random House Book Fair will feature about 1,300 titles for sale from a variety of publishers, three national authors and a new Family Literacy Resource Center. "The book fair is a two-pronged event," said Steve Wantz, Carroll Community College Foundation executive director. "We're supporting and encouraging literacy in our community, and it's a fundraiser for our foundation, with 100 percent of the money going back to the students." The event starts at 6 p.m. Friday with a screening of the Disney family movie Cars in the Scott Center Theater at the 1601 Washington Road campus in Westminster.

The 10th annual Random House Book Fair will feature about 1,300 titles for sale from various publishers, three national authors and a new Family Literacy Resource Center. "The book fair is a two-pronged event," said Steve Wantz, Carroll Community College Foundation executive director. "We're supporting and encouraging literacy in our community and it's a fundraiser for our foundation, with 100 percent of the money going back to the students." The event kicks off Friday at 6 p.m. with a screening of the Disney family movie Cars in the Scott Center Theater at the 1601 Washington Road campus in Westminster.

After a two-year hiatus, the Mid-Atlantic Radical Book Fair returns this weekend, thanks to the efforts of the Red Emma's collective and activists from around the region. The four-day festivities start tonight with a spoken-word performance by Jello Biafra (formerly of the Dead Kennedys) at Sonar and continue tomorrow with three days of free workshops and discussions at Center Stage and the Contemporary Museum. This year's fair will have a wider range of radical and independent publishers, booksellers and small-budget presses, said Kate Khatib, a member of the organizational committee.

McDaniel ready for graduation day McDaniel College will award more than 400 bachelor's and master's degrees at its 136th commencement at 2 p.m. Saturday in the Gill Center on the Westminster campus. Speakers will include Nora Roberts, author of numerous novels, and Jane Bryant Quinn, author of the best-selling books Making the Most of Your Money and Everyone's Money Book. Each is to receive an honorary degree. More than 127 million copies of Roberts' books are in print in the U.S., and her award-winning work has been made into films, excerpted in national magazines and translated in more than 25 different languages.

SITE DU JOUR Wonderful Wholesale Warehouse Bulk Foods www.bulkfoods.com/products.asp You'll find 62 kinds of nuts at your fingertips, plus dried fruit, spices and herbs, snack mixes, beans and seeds, grains and cereals, health-food ingredients, snack mixes, baking mixes, fancy gourmet gifts and much, much more. - - Knight Ridder/Tribune EVENT Book Fair -- Chefs from around the country will appear at the 10th Annual Baltimore Book Festival this weekend. At 6 p.m. Friday, Bob Kinkead will prepare recipes from his book Kinkead's Cookbook.

Award-winning children's author Robert Lawrence (R.L.) Stine of Goosebumps fame and four other nationally recognized authors will speak and sign books at Carroll Community College's eighth annual book fair this weekend. Wes Unseld, the former Baltimore/Washington Bullets center, coach and a member of the NBA Hall of Fame, will be attending as honorary chairman of the event. "I'm looking forward to enjoying myself," said Unseld, a Carroll County resident. "I understand it's a fabulous event."

Award-winning children's author Robert Lawrence (R.L.) Stine of Goosebumps fame and four other nationally recognized authors will speak and sign books at Carroll Community College's eighth book fair this weekend. Wes Unseld, former Baltimore and Washington Bullets center, coach and a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, will be the honorary chairman of the event. "I'm looking forward to enjoying myself," said Unseld, a Carroll County resident. "I understand it's a fabulous event." Random House Inc., a publishing company with a distribution center in Westminster, partners with the college for the event.