Swindon Festival of Literature 2010 - Children & Families Day

Sunday May 9
Children & Families Day
Lower Shaw Farm, Old Shaw Lane, West Swindon
Tel 01793 771080
10am – 4pm • 9 May
    
CHILDREN & FAMILIES DAY – a day for all ages, children and parents, together!

As well as the timed events below, there will be lots of other activities and attractions, including big-barn-playing and talking to the animals!

10am onwards – performance and experience: Campfire in the Pleasure Garden, where storyteller Chris Park, founder of Acorn Education, who has told stories at celebrations, cabarets, and for radio and television, but best of all, with others close by round a campfire under the open sky, will tell you a tale.

10.30am – meet the author, have fun, get ideas: All Aboard with Sarah Steel. Author, mother, and advocate of family action with her book that is bursting with ideas of things for children and parents to do.

11am and 1pm – workshops, experience, activity: Fun with Haiku – with Alan Summers. Would you like to make a fridge magnet haiku, the shortest poem in the world? Would you like to go on a haiku trail, roving round the farm, and win a Haiku Detective badge? Whole families welcome!

11.30am and 2pm – performances and question time: The Bird Book – puppets and people of One Moment in Time Theatre tell a fascinating story of migration, from Africa, across the ocean, to rich feeding grounds on these islands. The puppets encounter amazing landscapes, extreme weather, and wonderful wildlife!

11.30am - meet author, go monster hunting: Monster Hunting with Alvin Nicholas. Become a beast ranger, spot ‘man-eaters’, learn life-saving skills, enjoy wildlife and nature. Have an adventure!

12.30pm – meet author, hear stories, ask questions: Angel Seeds and The Everyday Witch with Liz Martinez. One author and two books, that tell stories about what happens when you buy a packet of seeds from a wizard’s shop and what you might think and do if someone you knew, really well, was a witch!

1.30pm – talk and question time: Writing for Children, a talk for grownups, with Julia Churchill of the Greenhouse Literary Agency. Do you write for children? Would you like top tips on how to get on with writing for children and being published? Julia has answers to these and other questions.

Also, all day, look out for Alison Brumfitt’s Poetry Pod, an exciting little silver caravan where writers of all ages will get a warm welcome and be invited to read, write, or contribute to the never-ending poem! And close by, you’ll see the Usborne Books bookstall with their fun and informative books for 0 – 12 year olds.

£5 adult - £4 child


Light refreshments available but, if you like, take along a picnic!