The campaign pushing children's books that share faith, hope and love will take place in hundreds of facilities in dozens of states.
Christian actor and author Kirk Cameron and his partners at Brave Books are calling "See You at the Library" part of an effort to "turn our nation back to God," as the publishing company's website puts it. The event will feature public readings of a host of faith-filled and family-friendly books for children.
Cameron, who starred in Christian movies like Fireproof and Lifemark, plans to visit several of the 260 public libraries taking part in 44 states. He and other authors published by Brave Books will share the stories they have written with audiences of children and their parents.
The 52-year-old father of six adult children has put out two books of his own in the last year - As You Grow and Pride Comes Before the Fall - both of which are centered on Biblical values. As we have reported previously, here, here, and here, Cameron and Brave Books have faced considerable opposition during his previous story-hour events at public libraries.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, he said his "hope" and "prayer" is that this national event sets off a "fire in the hearts" of people, so they "will return to the idea that we must have faith in God and be self-governing enough to love our neighbor and do the right thing no matter the cost." Brave Books, for its part, issued a rallying cry on its website.
"...we are calling on all families who love God and love America to gather at our local public libraries to pray, sing and read BRAVE Books and other books of virtue."
As you may have gathered, there is a political aspect in addition to the faith component of this event, and several conservative civic groups and even prominent politicians like Republican U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida plan to take part. If you would like to participate as well, these "See You at the Library" story hours are planned for this Saturday, August 5th, and you can peruse a full list of the locations via this link to the website of Brave Books.
UPDATE: Several hours after Christian Film Blog posted this article, one of the libraries scheduled to host Kirk Cameron himself cancelled the event. The Huntsville-Madison County Public Library in Alabama cited an anticipated crowd of some 300 attendees as being too large for their facility to accommodate, adding that it was initially informed there would be just 20 people on hand.
A law firm representing Cameron and Brave Books, however, is not buying it and has sent the library a letter calling the action "unlawful and unconstitutional religious...and content discrimination," warning of legal action if the decision is not reversed. We will keep an eye on the situation and bring you further updates as warranted.
UPDATE II: The threat of legal action worked, and the library decided to allow this event to take place as originally scheduled, though it did limit the crowd to 225 attendees. Afterward, Cameron stated that "the kids were awesome, the parents were awesome...so glad this all worked out."