Kekla Magoon, Margaret Edwards Award winner of 2021, signs a copy of “Revolution in Our Time” at the John Brown Farm on Aug. 20. (Provided photo — Martha Swan)

Last weekend was the weekend of many literary firsts. In tandem with — but not connected to — the Kicka** Writer’s Festival in Saranac Lake was the Adirondack Family Book Festival, a first-time children’s literature-centered event in Lake Placid.

Twelve nationally-recognized children’s book authors, including Jason Chin, Tracey Baptiste and Kate Messner, read from their works at the festival. Their audience outnumbered them by hundreds.

“By any estimate, I think there was definitely around 700 people there or so,” Sarah Galvin, who co-owns The Bookstore Plus and the Blue Line Book Exchange with her husband, Marc, said. “John Brown Farm had counted at one point I think 335 cars. They were literally cutting the fields to make more parking while the event was going on.”

For founder and executive director of John Brown Lives!, Martha Swan, this festival originally started off as a wish. However, since the organization received funding from North Elba’s Local Enhancement and Advancement Fund — which is funded by occupancy taxes collected on all hotel, motel and vacation rental stays — this wish finally had the foundation to become a reality.

“That was the greenlight for us,” Swan said. “It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for forever, but getting the LEAF grant, it really gave us not only the seed money but the wherewithal to reach out to Kate Messner first and say we’re planning a book festival.”

Formerly a TV news reporter and middle-school English teacher, Kate Messner is also a New York Times bestselling children’s author of books like “Over and Under the Pond,” and “Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt.”

Swan had reached out to her during the start of their planning process in January. Messner responded by volunteering her time and connections in the children’s literature world.

“I’ve attended book festivals far and wide — from annual events in Chappaqua and Rochester, to a festival in Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates — so I had a sense for what tends to work well and how to go about putting together a roster of participating authors,” Messner said.

While Messner lined up the group of authors that would be part of the festivities, Lake Placid Public Library staff members organized the youth-centered activities. Staff such as Bambi Pedu, Linda Blair and Karen Armstrong worked with kids from high school age to college so that the students and local youth could take leadership roles on the day of the festival.

“I was involved with the youth committee because it really was our goal to have the youth in as many ways as possible to be involved,” said Assistant Librarian and the children’s program director, Karen Armstrong. “They emceed the author presentations. So they introduced them (and) they concluded the events.”

Toward the end of the festival, the youth group held their own panel, called “A New Generation of Readers and Creators,” to discuss what role storytelling has played in their lives.

Each member of the planning committee took note of how the festival not only provided connection within stories for children but for the adults as well.

“What caught the attention of many of the planning committee members was how the festival seemed to connect with each and every family,” Armstrong said. “I think that this festival was truly multigenerational.”

She said that adults often think that reading children’s literature is specifically for children and that “they’re beyond that.” However, the festival proved that this broad genre of writing is for everyone.

Many of the planning committee members said that the festival surpassed their expectations and was a huge success. They measured their success not only in the number of attendees, but also in the reactions of both participants and attendees.

“We wanted to put on an event that we hoped people, at the end of the day, would say ‘That was incredible. What an amazing location to come to,’ and ‘We want to come back,'” Galvin said. ” And every single author and illustrator was chomping at the bit to come back so to me that’s a really successful thing.”

Swan said that she also hopes that the children who attended “go away seeing themselves as one in the stories but also maybe the chance to see themselves as storytellers down the road or greater appreciation of the story.”

The committee already has next year’s festival scheduled for Aug. 18-19.

“We’ve already started talking about planning for next year and hope to once again feature a terrific, inclusive list of authors and illustrators,” Messner said. “I think if there’s one thing we’ve learned over the past few years of uncertainty and relative isolation through the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s that the arts matter. We all need stories and poetry to provide hope when the world around us feels scary and uncertain. Stories sustain us. They inspire us to wonder, show us that we’re not alone, and introduce us to worlds beyond our own.”