Whether you love a good book or just enjoy having fun outdoors, the fifth annual Collingswood Book Festival promotes itself as "where you want to read" on Saturday.
Striving to be bigger and better, the festival will cap a week of reading and writing events at the Collingswood Library with more than six blocks of booksellers, storytellers, poetry readings and exhibitors.
Haddon Avenue in Collingswood also will host workshops, performance stages, and a full schedule of authors, including Pat Croce, Sal Paolantonio, Katharine Weber and Susan O'Doherty.
Several authors of the young-adult genre will sign books and hold discussions, including Catherine Gilbert Murdock, author of Dairy Queen and The Off Season.
Children's-book authors, including Sandra Warren, Carole Hamburger Beitchman and Marcie Aboff, will join in the festivities at "Loompaland." This children's zone also will feature illustrators, hands-on activities, a craft tent (near the corner of Haddon and Irwin Avenues), and a poetry workshop. Award-winning husband-wife duo "Two of a Kind" specialize in interactive musical programs for children and families and will entertain.
The poetry workshop, for students in Grades 4, 5 and 6, will be at 1 p.m. in Collingswood Library. Tom Congalton, past president of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America, will provide book appraisals for up to five books per person from noon to 2 p.m. at the library entrance.
Baby loves to dance
Cofounders Heather Murphy Monteith and Andy Blackman Hurwitz of Baby Loves Disco invite families and their bopping babies to Shampoo nightclub Sunday afternoon for a three-hour dance party, featuring disco tunes from the '70s and '80s guaranteed to get those little ones "moving and grooving."
Baby Loves Disco is an organization that transforms popular nightspots across the country into child-safe discos for toddlers, preschoolers and parents looking for good, clean family fun.
The community event will feature bubble machines, egg shakers, play scarves, a "chill-out room" with tents, books and puzzles, and, of course, diaper-changing stations. Visitors can snack on healthy foods provided by local businesses and goody bags for parents.
Playing safe
Perhaps the only thing more important than keeping children happy is keeping them safe. That's the idea behind husband and wife Frederick and Nicole Rabena's Kix & Giggles.
The 2,000-square-foot children's playland, featuring the latest in safe play equipment for ages 2 to 10, will open Saturday morning in Northeast Philadelphia. Highlights include a wraparound gym, a foam forest, and mini quick and spiral slides.
Other attractions are a web bridge, a rock wall, and a soft-play section for babies and toddlers. An added 1,500 square feet of outside space will house a seasonal moon bounce and a jungle gym.
Kix & Giggles also features a gourmet snack bar with fresh-fruit kabobs, tropical smoothies and traditional snacks; a vending-gaming area, and a free toy from the Giggles Treasure Chest.
Parents can enjoy a peekaboo alley set up for viewing their children at play. Surveillance cameras provide added security. Children with special needs will be invited for free play from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. every Monday.
Contact Kristin Granero at kgranero@phillynews.com.