Kids will have the special opportunity to get a photo with Dog Man, take home a free book, and meet inspiring Mississippi authors at the children’s program during the first ever Possumtown Book Fest on Aug. 24.

The official Dog Man costume character will come to Columbus on the “Bark to School” tour of bookstores and libraries around the country.

Dog Man is beloved by children worldwide as the titular crime-fighting cartoon character from Dav Pilkey’s bestselling graphic novels.

Kids attending the Possumtown Book Fest will receive a free copy of “Dog Man: The Scarlet Shedder,” the newest installment in the 12-book series, while supplies last courtesy of the Friendly City Books Community Connection, a special project of the CREATE Foundation.

The children’s program at the Possumtown Book Fest will kick off at 9 a.m. at Friendly City Books with four authors with Mississippi ties.

Picture book author and illustrator Sarah Frances Hardy and middle grade novelists Jo Watson Hackl and Linda Williams Jackson will join previously announced Beth Kander in the morning’s lineup.

Hardy and Kander will treat young children to storytime for the first half of the program with, respectively, “One Mississippi” and “Do Not Eat This Book!” Their presentation will be followed by Hackl and Jackson, whose novels “Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe” and “The Lucky Ones” are suggested for third grade and up.

Dog Man will pose for photos beginning at 10:30 a.m. and then will lead a parade of children and their families from Friendly City Books at 118 Fifth Street North to the Columbus Arts Council’s Rosenzweig Arts Center at 501 Main Street, just a short walk down the block.

While the children’s program proceeds at Friendly City Books, the Possumtown Book Fest’s local author showcase and literary panels will be underway at the Columbus Arts Council. All events are free and open to the public.

The Possumtown Book Fest is being organized by Friendly City Books and the Friendly City Books Community Connection, a special project of the CREATE Foundation. Sales of festival author books will be conducted on site by Friendly City Books.

The Mississippi Humanities Council provided a $7,500 grant to the Friendly City Books Community Connection to support the educational programming at the event. Generous support has also been furnished by the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System, the Friends of the Library, the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the Mississippi University for Women Foundation.

For more information about the Possumtown Book Fest, visit possumtownbookfest.com.

Author Announcements:

■ Sarah Frances Hardy is a children’s author, illustrator and professional painter. A former lawyer, Hardy studied art at the Parsons School of Design and has had her paintings featured in galleries and commercial establishments. She is the author and illustrator of “Puzzled by Pink,” “Paint Me!” and “Dress Me!” Most recently, she collaborated with songwriter Steve Azar on the children’s book adaptation of the new official state song “One Mississippi.”

■ Beth Kander is a novelist and playwright with tangled roots in the Midwest and Deep South. Her works include several plays that have received critical acclaim in theaters nationwide, the children’s picture book “Do Not Eat This Book! Fun with Jewish Foods and Festivals,” the young adult scifi trilogy “Original Syn” and the forthcoming novel “I Made It Out of Clay,” which will be published in December.

■ Jo Watson Hackl won the Southern Book Prize for children’s and young adult literature for her 2018 novel “Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe,” inspired by her childhood hometown of Electric Mills, Miss. Jo’s goal is to inspire students about the power of art, writing, and time in nature to transform their lives, to equip them with practical tools to take their writing to the next level, and to help them increase social and emotional learning skills and skills that promote grit and resiliency.

■ Linda Williams Jackson is the author of “Midnight Without a Moon,” which was an American Library Association Notable Children’s Book, a Jane Addams Honor Book for Peace and Social Justice, and a Washington Post Summer Book Club Selection. Her second book, “A Sky Full of Stars,” received a Malka Penn Honor for an outstanding children’s book addressing human rights issues and was a Bank Street College Best Book of the Year. Her two most recent books are “The Lucky Ones” and “Saving Jimmy.”

■ Dog Man is the #1 worldwide bestselling series from Dav Pilkey, the creator of “Captain Underpants” and “Cat Kid Comic Club.” The first Dog Man animated movie is slated for release in January 2025.