VENTURA : Young Writers’ Fair to Be Held Today

To showcase the work of Ventura’s youngest writers, the Ventura Unified School District is holding a writers’ fair today that will feature puppet shows, talks by children’s authors and exhibits by local students.

The seventh annual Young Writers’ Fair will run from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Cabrillo Middle School, 1426 E. Santa Clara St.

The fair will feature a display of works by more than 5,000 Ventura students in preschool through 12th grade, including mobiles made by young children and poems written by older pupils.

Three authors will give talks. Sneed Collard, who writes nonfiction children’s books on animals and the environment, will give a slide presentation and discuss the writing process he is following in his current project about the Costa Rican rain forest. Authors Elizabeth King, who wrote an award-winning book called “Backyard Sunflower,” and Joel Matus, whose latest book is called “Leroy and the Cavemen,” will also participate.

Ventura school officials launched the fair to put more emphasis on writing in classrooms throughout the district, said Jean Eaton, a teacher at Junipero Serra School.

The district has continued the fair “to show the public what wonderful things the students are doing,” Eaton said.