New Houston family literacy festival offering free books and fun Sunday

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Discovery Green will be transformed Sunday as it plays host to a first-of-its-kind Texas festival dedicated to family literacy.

Story Square's Lit with Families 2022 Texas Family Literacy Festival will beckon visitors to Downtown Houston as it presents a day of food, face painting, activities and free books for the entire family.

The festival will run Sunday, Oct. 16 from 10:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Free tickets are available on Eventbrite.

Story Square CEO Fran-Victoria Stevens said the festival comes at a time of great urgency, especially among households with Black and Hispanic students.

"In 2019, we were facing before the pandemic... eighth graders in Texas just weren't proficient in reading, specifically African American eighth graders," Stevens said.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, just 11% of Black eighth graders, and 19% of Latin and Hispanic eighth graders in Texas were proficient in reading before the pandemic.

"It's a real problem that, uh, keeps me up late at night," she said.

The festival is an effort by Story Square, Inc., an evidence-based education enterprise working to increase parent-child interactions, primarily around literacy.

Discovery Green is located at 1500 McKinney St., in Houston.