BAY MINETTE, Alabama — The second annual Read Aloud Bay Minette will be Oct. 8 offering a family-friendly event to foster the love of reading.

Activities will take place 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Bay Minette Public Library and will feature celebrity guest readers, storytellers, characters, arts and crafts and free food.

Each child attending will receive a free book, book bag and specially-designed bookmark. The free books for children are compliments of Standard Furniture Company. There will also be numerous photo opportunities with characters from favorite children’s books and movies.

The library is sponsoring a bookmark design contest and will select winners from four age categories. The deadline for entries is Sept. 26. The winners will have their images made into bookmarks that will be distributed to all children at the event.

Read Aloud Bay Minette is a joint project of the Bay Minette Public Library, North Baldwin Literacy Council and Read Aloud Baldwin.

“We were thrilled with the success of the inaugural Read Aloud Bay Minette,” Joanna Bailey, Bay Minette librarian, said. “This type of event is vital to helping spread the word about the importance of reading aloud to young children starting at infancy. Children who are read aloud to learn to associate reading with love and affection which helps create a lifelong love of reading. Also, children who are read to develop a better vocabulary and will have a better success rate in school.”

This year, the event will feature a wide assortment of book titles and other bonuses.

“By popular demand we are bringing back our storytellers and adding to that line-up,” Bailey said. Storytellers will include Wanda Johnson, Harriet Outlaw, Connie Conzort and Irene Wagner. There will also be dozens of celebrity readers taking part again this year and those will be stationed at various reading tents.

Characters such as Pete the Cat, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Elsa and Anna and many others will be on hand to greet and pose for photos throughout the day.

Organizers said a huge reason for the success the first year was due to the outpouring of community involvement, from sponsors to readers to volunteers.

“We were very excited to see the community involvement and the wonderful turnout we had last year,” Kris Angelone, committee member, said. “So many of our local students came out dressed in character and read to the little ones and others helped with the arts and crafts project. There was so much food and we gave away so many books. We can’t wait to repeat the event again.”

While there will be plenty of fun to be had, Bailey said the focus is on providing information.

“The event will work to stress the importance of parents reading aloud to their children, to spend that quality time together,” she said. “It’s a win-win for everyone involved.”

The library is at 205 W. Second St. The Read Aloud Bay Minette event will be on the grassy lawn across the street from the library. For more information about this event, contact the library at 251-580-1648 or visit its website at bayminettepubliclibrary.org.