Yallwest Book Festival

Do you want to sit down and enjoy a good book? If your answer is “YES!” than Yallwest is the place for you!

Yallwest is a FREE book festival held at Santa Monica High School every year. This year’s festival is on Saturday, May 5th. All the bookworms come out and have a blast: we get to interact with over 100 YA authors, TV, video game, and comic creators, and get our free books signed by them. Yes, you read that right…FREE!!! There are hundreds of free books you can take home – everything from mystery to romance.

This is our second annual trip to Yallwest, organized by our Cardinal City librarian, Mrs. Schmidt. Not only do we have transportation, but this year, Mrs. Schmidt was able to get free tickets to two of the keynote presentations too! There are 30 tickets available for the morning presentation with Tamora Pierce (author of Tempests and Slaughter) and Tomi Adeyemi (author of the highly anticipated Children of Blood and Bone) where they discuss the job of fantasy. This session is moderated by Kami Garcia, the author of the Beautiful Creatures series. There are also 50 tickets available for the always highly entertaining Smackdown keynote. This is a can’t-miss experience where your favorite authors get up on stage and entertain us with their silliness. This year’s theme is “Most Likely To…” where the authors show off their hidden talents!

But wait there’s more! If you’re a Harry Potter fan, I challenge you to an SBHS Quidditch match! You read that right! UCLA’s Quidditch team will be at Yallwest and not only can we cheer them on, but we can also participate in our own match!! You are also challenged to close the day by attending some of the authors’ sessions. “I thought it was cool because of my fascination of books.

There are so many reasons to go to Yallwest. Did I mention all the free books representing a wide variety of genres?! It’s also nice to get a book signed by an author you most definitely like. There are so many activities to choose from throughout the day. I liked the fact that everyone there enjoys books as much as I do (more or less).

Students who went last year raved about it. We had students who came home with 30 free books! Blanca Rivas said, “Yallwest is a great opportunity to receive new books that haven’t even came out yet!” When asked about Yallwest and why it was fun, another Cardinal, Kimberly Andrade, simply said “The Free Books!”