(COLUMBIA, MO) – Middle school students will have the opportunity to hear from one of the most beloved writers of children’s literature, Jacqueline Woodson, on April 19 at the Missouri Theater.

Students from all six Columbia Public Schools (CPS) middle schools will be bused to the Missouri Theater to hear Woodson speak at 12:30 p.m. on April 19 as part of the Unbound Book Festival. The $5,000 grant from the Columbia Public Schools Foundation provides Woodson’s books for all the middle schools as well as transportation for students to the festival.

“The Columbia Public Schools Foundation is proud to provide Jacqueline Woodson’s books to our middle schools, and then to bring students to hear the author at the Unbound Book Festival,” said Cindy Mustard, CPSF board president. “This grant gives students the opportunity to read a book and then meet the author in-person.”

Woodson is the author of Another Brooklyn, brown girl dreaming and Beneath a Meth Moon. She is the recipient of the Caldecott Medal, the Coretta Scott King Award, the Newberry Honor Medal and a National Book Award. She is the Poetry Foundation’s Young People’s Poet Laureate and was appointed by the Library of Congress as the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.

Woodson’s visit is also supported by the University of Missouri-Columbia College of Education and the Unbound Book Festival, which aims to bring nationally and internationally recognized authors to Columbia to talk about their books, their work, and their lives.

The Columbia Public Schools Foundation is a private foundation established by community volunteers dedicated to the enrichment of public education through community giving. The Foundation has funded projects in every school, allocating more than $1.2 million to enhance education in the Columbia Public Schools. CPSF was founded in 1996 and has supported teachers and students for more than 23 years.