PBS phenomenon takes over book festival

Visitors to the Saturday session of the 2015 Vegas Valley Book Festival at Historic Fifth Street School had the opportunity to meet a wide variety of wonderful authors.

They also saw a long line that flowed from the courtyard, down a hall and into the middle of the poetry jams.

Who was this literary rock star?

It was something of a mystery.

Now a cultural hub run by the city, the school itself is well-worth meandering through. Its courtyard and auditorium buzzed with activity with families and children enjoying everything from friendly hula hoop competitions to face painting. The kids even had a chance to hear City Councilman Bob Coffin read them a story — and it wasn't even about the wonders of downtown redevelopment.

Those who planned well and packed a lunch could spend the whole day listening to fiction writers Claire Vaye Watkins, Colum McCann and Laura McBride. The Poetry Courtyard featured Jess Flo, Joan Robinson and one of my favorite Nevada poets, Reno laureate Gailmarie Pahmeier, among many.

McBride, who teaches at College of Southern Nevada, is the author of the wonderful first novel "We Are Called to Rise," which captures once-booming modern Las Vegas in a time of recession. Her chat with Desert Companion magazine publisher Andrew Kiraly, titled "In the Wake of Success," was full of insight and self-deprecating humor.

There were sessions on politics, the West, race and ethnicity, self-publishing, children's literature, graphic novels, mystery and crime, and much more. In short, there was something for just about anyone's literary tastes with authors of national and international reputation willing to talk about their work.

But suffice to say every other literary lion in the house was left in the wake of the popularity of whoever was at the front of that long line that wound through the school and drew such an excited young crowd.

Who was this rock star of the written word?

With so much talent already on the property, it had to be someone special. A surprise visit from Stephen King? A drop-in from Joyce Carol Oates? From the look of that line, anything was possible.

As I drew closer, the fog of mystery began to lift.

"You'll have to wait until noon to see Thomas," an usher said to a harried father with one child in his arms and another in tow.

Thomas?

Dad passed by, took his place at the end of the line of fidgeting children and wrangling parents, and sighed.

"Who's the line for?" I asked.

"Thomas," he said. "Thomas the Tank Engine."

A few minutes later Jessica Carroll, the Ready to Learn Coordinator for Vegas PBS, took a break from the action to briefly explain the phenomenon of Thomas, the small fictional steam engine created by the Rev. Wilbert Awdry and now the kind, helpful star of a very popular PBS children's animated series.

"Holy moly," Carroll said, adjusting her train engineer's cap. "It's a really big deal. It's a really big costume."

She said: "It's so nice that so many of our PBS Kids programs align with literature. Vegas Valley Book Festival is just the perfect place for PBS to partner with them to promote children's literature and all of the good values and curriculum behind our PBS Kids programs."

Carroll estimated that the Thomas exhibit, with its big eyes and friendly smile so familiar to children, would draw approximately 1,500 kids.

And from the look of things, each was thrilled to be in the presence of greatness.

It was enough to make the festival's lesser literary lions cry in their beer.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Contact him at 702 383-0295, or jsmith@reviewjournal.com. On Twitter: @jlnevadasmith