The Lindbergh School District’s Reeve Lindbergh Book and Poetry Festival will bring nationally known authors and illustrators to the Lindbergh community.

The festival will celebrate the written word and the illustrations that accompany it. The entire community is invited to attend the festival celebration from 1:30 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 27, at the Lindbergh High School campus, 4900 S. Lindbergh Blvd., where residents can meet both local and national authors and illustrators and enjoy a fun-filled celebration, according to a news release.

Author Reeve Lindbergh, the youngest daughter of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, will make a special appearance at the festival, which is named in her honor.

“Often the community doesn’t have access to meet these talented authors and illustrators. We are thrilled to open this festival up and invite everyone to come in and celebrate literacy with us,” Marietta Schwalbe, Lindbergh’s head librarian, stated in the news release.

Families will enjoy a wide variety of events at the celebration on Sunday. Authors and illustrators will conduct a series of presentations and book signings. In addition, the younger crowd will enjoy face painting, a graffiti wall, puppetry, and hands-on activities. Lindbergh students will also have a “coffeehouse,” featuring student poetry readings.

The visiting authors and illustrators include many familiar names: Jim Aylesworth, Lisa Campbell Ernst, Kate Klise, Constance Levy, Dorinda Nicholson, Shelley Pear-son, and June Rae Wood. The festival also will feature St. Louis authors Susan Burney, David Fiedler, Kevin Horrigan, Shirley Kennett, Deborah Nelson-Linck, Rob Raines, Mark Sumner, Pam Vaccaro and others.

The community will have a second opportunity to meet authors and illustrators during a special book signing from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 28, at Long Elementary School, 9021 S. Sappington Road. The event will feature Kevin Hawkes, Reeve Lindbergh and Tracey Campbell Pearson, who has illustrated some of Lindbergh’s books.

On Feb. 28 and March 1, the artists and writers also will visit Lindbergh schools, serving as authors- and illustrators-in-residence.

They will discuss their current books, and what it means to be a writer with students and teachers.

The Book and Poetry Festival is the first of its kind in the St. Louis area and is offered free to the entire community.

Schwalbe explained in the release, “Our goal is to excite and inspire all of the budding readers, authors and artists throughout the area. Our libraries are cultural centers, and we want to highlight our connections to literacy.”

For more information about the festival, call Schwalbe at (314) 729-2400, Ext. 7130.