TVOKids celebrates love of reading at The Word on the Street, Sunday
September 27 2009 at Queen's Park, Toronto

TORONTO , Sept. 15 /CNW/ - To celebrate the importance of reading from our earliest years, TVOKids presents lots of word-filled activities, fun and live performances at this year's The Word on the Street. Canada's largest book and magazine festival takes place Sunday September 27 at Queen's Park, Toronto .

"Reading changes lives and opens doors," says Pat Ellingson , TVO's creative head of Children's Media Content and Programming. "The Word on the Street is a perfect fit for TVOKids because it celebrates the joy of reading and reminds us all about the enormous value of reading to our children."

From 11 am through 6 pm at the TVOKids Stage, children and families can enjoy back-to-back performances and activities with the TVOKids hosts and with characters from some of the best new TVOKids fall programming. Highlights include the opportunity to:

    
    -   play with words with Melvin the skunk and Jay the blue jay from
        Gisèle's Big Backyard
    -   hear Gisèle read the latest book from her Book Club
    -   sing and laugh with TVOKids hosts Gisèle, Mark, Jackie and Ryan in
        their "TVOKids Extravaganza" live stage show
    -   try some new moves with the "Pop It!" dancers
    -   be a hero with Enviro Girl
    -   take some new steps with Jackie and her "School of Dance"
    -   discover the new Tumbletown Reads Book Club
    -   meet the large and legendary Polkaroo
    

TVOKids provides an array of programming on air and online that builds children's reading and language skills and nurtures a lifelong love of reading, such as Letterella's Word Families, Word World, Martha Speaks and Word Girl on TVO. And at tvokids.com kids can play many exciting web games that promote literacy including Melvin's Marvellous Words, Melvin's Marvellous Stories, and Big Escape 3.

For more about TVOKids' new fall programming, including videoclips, visit: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/mmnr/tvo/kids2009/

About TVO

TVO is Ontario's public educational media organization and a trusted source of interactive educational content that informs, inspires and stimulates curiosity and thought. TVO's vision is to empower people to be engaged citizens of Ontario through educational media. For more information, visit tvo.org.

Where to find TVO

Cable channel 2 (channel may vary in some areas), Bell TV channel 265, Star Choice channel 353.

For further information: Media Contact: Lisa Marinelli, TVO Event Marketing, [phone] x 2454, [email protected]