The fledging Great Valley Bookfest — now in its fourth year — is the latest chapter in the book being written to not just elevate literacy rates but to also celebrate the power and joy of reading.

Nearly 70 authors with most heralding from the Northern San Joaquin Valley are participating in the Bookfest this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at The Promenade Shops at Orchard Valley near Bass Pro Shops.

If you think this free event is a staid affair, guess again.

Organizers have done everything possible to drive home the point reading is fun and can open the door up to all sorts of endeavors.

Besides having the chance to meet authors (and purchase their books if you like), there is a children’s pavilion with interactions with children’s authors as well as hands-on activities, a poet’s corner with author readings, and a poetry slam from 2:40 to 3 p.m. that is purse pose entertainment.

There are also food preparations being staged by cookbook authors.

The tone for the day is being set with a costume parade for all ages at 10 a.m. Show up a 9:45 a.m. and get a free Kazoo and receive instruction on how to play it. Then at 10 o’clock the Manteca High marching band plus mascots from local schools will lead participants — costumed and otherwise — in a procession.

The Bookfest not only speaks volumes about the commitment of organizers and participants to reading and literacy but it underscores the valley’s tremendous resources and commitment to elevate lives through the power of reading.

When Toni Raymus first started circulating the idea of staging a bookfest, the nearly universal response was, “what, a bookfest in Manteca?” with more than a few silently wondering whether she was joking.

Her response: Why not?

There is little doubt much of the San Joaquin Valley has its challenges.

But that said, the valley is not a desert when it comes to literature or culture.

In fact you could argue that the Northern San Joaquin Valley is the perfect setting for not just a Bookfest but to strengthen the written word.

The Bookfest site is 30 minutes from Livermore Lab and an hour from the Silicon Valley that is populated with some of the world’s greatest tech minds with many of their collaborating colleagues residing this side of the Altamont Pass. It is at the epicenter of a million people within a 30-mile radius who labor in a wide array of professions and can find inspiration in some of the most diverse landscape and communities of people in the world. If the United States is the melting pot, and California the golden ingredient then the Northern San Joaquin Valley is where you will find the biggest nugget. It’s not refined per se but it is still gold.

Saturday’s event in a sense is also a way to remind us that not only does the Northern San Joaquin Valley have a lot to offer but that the written world is alive and kicking here.

Stop by the Bookfest Saturday. Search for specks of gold along Author’s Alley and celebrate reading.

It’ll give you a chance to understand what is making Manteca a bestseller to the people who elect to move here every year.

There is a wealth of talented people living here and even more people committed to making lives better.

The Bookfest would be impossible to stage if that wasn’t the case.