Children’s Book Week, the longest running literacy event in the country, will be celebrated May 12 through 18 by librarians, teachers, bookstore owners, book club members, parents – and most important of all, by kids.

Locally, Village Books in Fairhaven will host authors whose writings have been hits with young readers – Tony Robles, Liz Gallagher, Amber Kizer and Trudi Trueit.

For kids ages 10 and older who have an interest in writing books themselves, Barnes & Noble Booksellers on Meridian Street hosts a Young Authors’ Club meeting on May 13. And on May 17 at Barnes & Noble, in anticipation of a classic children’s book brought to life through dance, students from the Nancy Whyte School of Ballet will highlight scenes from their June 8 production of “The Wizard of Oz,” which will be staged at Bellingham High School.

For some suggested activites for Children’s Book Week, click here.

Best of all, ask a child in your life to cuddle up with you with a favorite book!

In other book-related news, poet Lucille Clifton will be unable to attend the Skagit River Poetry Festival in La Conner, due to illness. The opening night event on May 15 will instead feature multi-award winning poet Jane Hirshfield. Here’s one of her poems I particularly like, “Tree.”

It is foolish
to let a young redwood
grow next to a house.

Even in this
one lifetime,
you will have to choose.

That great calm being,
this clutter of soup pots and books—

Already the first branch-tips brush at the window.
Softly, calmly, immensity taps at your life.

Tickets are still available for the festival, which include panel discussions, workshops, readings, and even music by Bellingham’s Kristin Allen-Zito and Robert Blake. For more on the festival, call (888) 290-6398 or click here.

Is there a National Essay Month? A National Nonfiction Month? A National Romance Novel Month?

No, but since 1996, there’s been a National Poetry Month (actually, we share it with our neighbo(u)rs to the north, as well.

This joyous celebration was established by the Academy of American Poets as a way to increase attention to the art of poetry, to living poets and to our poetic heritage, in hopes of making poetry more accessible and visible in our lives.

There are many poets coming to our area this month (see Take Five, the Herald’s Thursday arts and entertainment magazine, for details), and in particular, one event that I look forward to every other year (but it’s not until May) — the Skagit River Poetry Festival, taking place May 15 through 17 in La Conner. Click here for details on the festival.

Here are a few more links, rather non-academic, but informative and with some good links to poetic history, contemporary poetry and poetry forums, click here or here .

If you are a teacher of young children, here are a couple of suggestions on how to make poetry come alive for your students. Here’s one
and here’s another .

More than anything, of course, is the pure sensation, the smiles, the tears and the memories that that special poem can bring to you, personally. If you have a favorite poem, why not post it here?

Scott MacFarlane, whom I interviewed last June about his book, “The Hippie Narrative” (one of my “Best Books” of 2007), emailed me about a course he’s offering through Western Washington University’s Academy of Lifelong Learning.

His book is subtitled “A Literary Perspective on the Counterculture,” and if you missed my interview with him, you should know that MacFarlane is one of the first scholars to look at the works of the late 1960s and early 1970s in depth, in relation to each other and with the perspective of that tumultuous time of radical change.

For more about the course, click here

As someone who came of age during that time, I am particularly interested in the works of such writers as Richard Brautigan, Ken Kesey, Hunter S. Thompson and others.

Surfing a bit, I came across a couple of Web sites that are insightful and informative.

To learn more, click here

and here

So carry on, check them out, and dig it, readers.

Spokane may be known for its fragrant Lilac Festival that takes place each May, but April brings another delightful scent to the valley — that of good books.

The Get Lit! Festival, billed as the “Northwest’s Best Festival for Readers and Writers,” features award-winning novelist Diana Abu-Jaber, Turkish-born Yesho Atil, former Western Washington University student D.S. Butterworth, social critic Naomi Wolf, poet Thomas Lynch, Montana’s David James Duncan, social commentator Karen Karbo, poetry columnist B.T. Shaw and many others, April 16-19 in Spokane and Cheney.

Sponsored by Eastern Washington University Press, the festival began in 1997 as a way to “inform the regional community with nationally and internationally renowned authors and poets, while it also increases awareness of the exceptional literary talent living and writing in the greater Inland Northwest.”

Attendees will have the opportunity to engage in poetry slams (including some for teens and younger children), writing workshops and panel discussions.

Click here for a complete schedule of events and registration information.

Do you choose your “to read” list from the New York Times best-sellers or the Pacific Northwest Independent Bookstore list?

No complaints with those choices,of course, but for some noteworthy books that may be new to you, here are a couple of ideas.

I just received, from CBC News, the winners of the CBC Literary Awards. Among them: “In a Garden,” by Shelagh Plunkett of Montreal; “Vidh,” by Phyllis Nakonechny of Swift Current, Sask.; and “Preservation” by Alex Leslie of Richmond, B.C. For the short list (a list of candidates for final consideration), click here

For more books worth checking out, go to Great Britain’s Man Booker Prize Web site, for a list of the best novels by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. Among those titles, you’ll find Michael Ondaatje’s “The English Patient,” Graham Swift’s “Last Orders” and Salman Rushdie’s “Midnight’s Children.”

For a more comprehensive list, click here.