Best-selling children’s author Laura Numeroff will visit three area schools Friday, April 16, before her appearance Saturday, April 17, at the Southern Kentucky Book Fest.

Numeroff is the author of more than 30 books including the well loved If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and the new series The Jellybeans. Numeroff will make stops at W.R. McNeill Elementary, Briarwood Elementary and Rockfield Elementary schools. She will talk to the children about her experiences as a writer as well as sign copies of her books which will be available for sale.

More than 130 authors for adults and children will be in attendance at this year’s 12th annual SOKY Book Fest, the largest book festival in the state. Legal thriller writer Lisa Scottoline, The Christmas Box author Richard Paul Evans, and The Cake Mix Doctor Anne Byrn are just some of the well-known names that will be in attendance at this year’s festival, a free literary event for all ages.

Lisa Scottoline is the New York Times bestselling author of 17 novels, including Look Again and the recently released Think Twice. She also writes a column for the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper titled “Chick Wit” which is her witty and fun take on life from a woman’s perspective.

Richard Paul Evans is the author of the new novel The Walk about an executive who loses everything and embarks on a walk that takes him across America. Each of Evans 14 inspirational novels has appeared on the New York Times bestseller list and there are more than 14 million copies of his books in print worldwide.

Nashville author Anne Byrn’s The Cake Mix Doctor is one of the most popular baking books of all time. Byrn’s all-new Cake Mix Doctor Returns! includes more shortcut recipes for comforting cakes (plus some cookies and brownies) made easy thanks to the use of purchased cake mix and other supermarket ingredients.

The 2010 Book Fest will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 17 at the Carroll Knicely Conference Center. The new location was chosen to bring the event closer to Bowling Green Community College at WKU’s South Campus where the Book Fest sister event the Kentucky Writers Conference is held the Friday before the Book Fest. The Kentucky Writers Conference is free and open to anyone,  including experienced writers, new writers, educators and students. A dozen authors attending the Book Fest will offer workshops on various writing topics during the daylong event.

SOKY Book Fest is a partnership project of WKU Libraries, Warren County Public Library, and Barnes and Noble Booksellers. For a full list of authors attending the book festival visit www.sokybookfest.org or contact manager Tracy Harkins at WKU Libraries, at (270) 745-5016.