St. Louis’ one-day outdoor book festival is only three years old this Saturday, Oct. 11. I have written two stories that ran fact boxes about the festival, but I’ve still gotten calls about where the festival is. This year, it will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the parking lot and campus of Clayton High School, which is at MarkTwain Circle and Topton Way (just east of I-170 and south of Ladue Road).

On the day of the festival’s first year, the Cardinals were in a World Series game in the afternoon, I believe. For the second year, the weather just about hit 100 degrees (or felt like it). Both years, the festival had marvelous authors, some of whom drew strong crowds. But overall the crowds could have been better. This year the Redbirds’ bats are silent and the weather looks very nice, which bodes well for The Big Read.

My own kids are a bit beyond the picture book age, but I’m still hoping to get at least one of them to see some of the children’s authors, including Susan Meddaugh. She’s best known in our house for her kids book “Martha Speaks,”  which came about about the year my daughter was born. Meddaugh has written several sequels, of course, and now the book is a PBS TV show (let’s not hold that against her).  I still feel a sense of delight, and I guess nostalgia, for the first picture book itself and its charming, talking heroine who foils a bank robbery. Who could forget reading (several times) the story of a dog that ate a bowl of alphabet soup, magically giving her the gift of speech.

 Likewise, Laurie Keller has a new book out. That won’t be something my 13-year-old will want, but I think he’ll remember the very clever “The Scrambled States of America” (which he also heard me read many times).

These are just two out of a lineup of nationally known authors. So even if I don’t have a child with me, I have to get a peak at some of these children’s authors who remain touchstones in my reading life just because of the beautiful or funny stories I shared with my young kids.