Mimi Vance (pink sweater) and former Houston First Lady Andrea White (burgundy sweater) visited Crockett ES on Dec. 2

Every student at HISD’s Crockett Elementary School encountered a very special guest bearing gifts on Dec. 2—but it wasn’t Santa Claus.

On that day, four different authors came to campus with copies of their books, which they read aloud from and talked about with students. Pre-K and kindergarten students heard from Mimi Vance and former Houston First Lady Andrea White, who co-authored “Tummies on the Run” and “Snuggles.” First-, second-, and third-grade students met Keith Graves, who wrote “Monsterator,” while fourth- and fifth-graders met René Saldaña, author of “The Mystery of The Mischievous Marker.”

The visits were coordinated by Assistant Principal Dina Rayo-Kirkconnell, who obtained a grant from the Texas Book Festival to underwrite it. The grant also allowed each student to take home a copy of the book he or she learned about, and paid for extra copies of each book to be purchased for the library.