About this Year's Special Guest for Literacy in the Schools 2025

This year Vicki Conrad is our special guest author sharing literacy in our local schools, while also participating in our first ever Literary Festival! Vicki's goal is to inspire students to both read and write and maybe even become published authors themselves one day.

In coming years, we hope to have literacy event not only in our local community but also in nearby school communities as well.

Vicki visited us way back in 2021 at an outdoor event, but many of the children we now have in elementary school were too young to see her. Now she's back....
What made her want to write about Beverly Cleary?
She first read and loved the Ramona stories when she was in elementary school. Then she read the biography, A Girl From Yamhill as a 6th grader and was inspired. When looking for non-fiction subjects she began to re-read Beverly's autobiography. "The life of Beverly Cleary resonated with me," she said "and her drive to write stories, that had been there since she was a young girl." Vicki had this same drive. She is a reading teacher, and she empathizes deeply with early reading struggles. "I know many children can relate." She says those were the factors that made her sit down and start writing.

Just Like Beverly
A story to inspire young readers, teachers, and writers.