2022 Story Square lights up with families Texas Family Literacy Festival this Sunday at Discovery Green

HOUSTON, TX (KTRK) — Discovery Green will be transformed on Sunday as it hosts a unique Texas festival dedicated to family literacy.

The Lit with Families 2022 Texas Family Literacy Festival at Story Square will draw visitors to downtown Houston as it offers a day of food, face painting, activities and free books for the whole family.

The festival takes place on Sunday 16 October from 10:30am to 6:30pm Free tickets are available on Eventbrite.

Story Square CEO Fran-Victoria Stevens said the festival comes at a time of great urgency, particularly in households with black and Hispanic students.

“In 2019, we faced before the pandemic … Eighth graders in Texas just couldn’t read, especially African American eighth graders,” Stevens said.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, just 11% of black eighth-graders and 19% of Latino and Hispanic eighth-graders in Texas before the pandemic could read.

“It’s a real problem that keeps me up late,” she said.

The festival is an effort by Story Square, Inc., an evidence-based education company working to improve parent-child interactions, primarily around literacy.

Discovery Green is located at 1500 McKinney Street in Houston.