SBF@SCHOOLS

YOUR GENEROSITY BRINGS STORIES to LIFE.

Since its launch in 2010, SBF@Schools has expanded the mission of the Savannah Book Festival by bringing authors directly into classrooms across the city, extending the Festival’s impact into public schools and community organizations.

Designed to foster a lifelong love of reading and writing, the program invites Festival authors to arrive a day early and speak with various groups, including local middle school, high school, and college students, as well as community leaders, about their creative process, research, and the power of storytelling. Authors represent fiction and nonfiction, covering a wide array of topics and voices to spark curiosity and inspire new writers and readers.

Since 2010, more than 175 authors have participated in SBF@Schools, making this unique experience possible for public and private schools, colleges and universities, military installations, and community centers throughout the region. This program has become a beloved and meaningful part of our community engagement, offering students a rare opportunity to engage with award-winning authors as well as debut authors in a conversational setting. We are deeply grateful to the authors who generously share their time, insight, and encouragement with Savannah’s young minds—it is truly a gift that leaves a lasting impact.

SBF AUTHORS VISIT LOCAL CLASSROOMS

If your school is interested in booking one of these meaningful learning sessions, please contact Mickie McNamara at [email protected]

Douglas Preston, author of The Lost City of the Monkey God, The Monster of Florence: A True Story and co-author of the Agent Pendergast series and the Nora Kelly series, visited Savannah Technical College’s Film Academy students.

Jim Towey, author of To Love and Be Loved: A Personal Portrait of Mother Teresa, visited St. Vincent’s Academy, an all-girls Catholic School. Over 200 students, parents and staff attended.

EXPANDING OUR REACH: SBF@SCHOOLS for ELEMENTARY STUDENTS

In 2024, the Savannah Book Festival launched a new pilot initiative to bring the magic of books into elementary classrooms—widening the reach of our SBF@Schools initiative with a powerful mission to put books in young children’s hands early, and ignite a lifelong passion for reading.

Partnering with the Savannah-Chatham County Public School System during Literacy Week, SBF@Elementary Schools focused on second and third grade classrooms in four Title I schools: Garden City Elementary, Otis J. Brock III Elementary, Haven Elementary, and Gadsden Elementary.

We set a simple but powerful goal to foster a love of reading and writing in young students. We connected them with children’s book authors whose stories champion the cultural and linguistic diversity of their classroom. We invited two authors—Elizabeth M. Adams (Little Miss Minnesota and Her Six Brothers) and Nury Castillo Crawford (Sofía and Vivi: Big Sister) to share their books and creative journeys with students in English and bilingual settings.

Through our partnership with the Savannah Repertory Theatre, teaching artists developed an engaging student activity sheet for students to take home. This tool connects parents to the author visits, ensuring the experience extends well beyond the classroom.

For too many children in our community, a book of their own is a rare gift. Thanks to your support and support from the City of Savannah, we gave more than 300 students a personal treasure—a book, signed by the author to take home. For many children, this was the very first book they’d ever received signed by the author. With the enthusiastic backing of teachers, school leaders, and the SCCPSS Literacy team, this initiative is a direct and meaningful step in our shared effort to serve readers of all ages and abilities.

We look forward to building on this success in future years as we continue to expand access to the written word for all Savannah students. If your school is interested in booking one of these meaningful learning sessions, please contact Mickie McNamara at [email protected].