Our community is very supportive of young people. We know who scores the winning touchdown for City High. We celebrate students who make all-state in music for Northwest Junior High. We cheer the top debaters at Regina. But do we know the best young writers in our community?

We should. As a UNESCO City of Literature, we rightly applaud the published and soon-to-be published authors among us, but we tend to overlook the most abundant pool of talent in our area: our K-12 schools. Recognizing and celebrating this talent is a big reason behind the City of Literature organization’s annual One Book Two Book Children’s Literature Festival. Like traditional festivals, it offers the chance for attendees — in this case, children and their families — to hear from published authors about their work. But more important is its ultimate goal: to champion writing by children.