Cheltenham Literature Festival children’s events proves in spades - imagination is power

On Friday we eased ourselves into our family’s annual outing to the lit fest with a single event - an inspiring talk from Anna James, author of the literarily immersive Pages & Co book series. Demonstrating to a crowd of youngsters how to piece together their weird and wonderful imaginings into the bones of a story, there can’t have been a child there who didn’t feel like they could go home and start putting their stories on paper.

In complete contrast to Friday’s leisurely start, Saturday offered my offspring and me a whirlwind of some of the best children’s authors and illustrators around today. Beginning the day surrounded by the Regency elegance of The Queen’s Hotel, my son was enraptured by writer and illustrator Gavin Puckett and Allen Fatimaharan. As the little ones settled onto blankets and cushions laid before the stage, they were captivated by the story of Blanksy the Street Cat before creating their own sidekick character, imaginatively named “Barbara” by my four-year-old, and worked on rhymes to reflect the book’s poetic style. Just one example of how the festival’s speakers effortlessly bring learning-without-knowing-it to children who may even be yet to read words on the page themselves yet.

The eldest’s first event of the day was the wonderful Liz Pichon - creator of the enormously popular Tom Gates books with fourteen million copies sold worldwide and counting. Achieving what is virtually impossible with a room full of 8-12 year olds, she held the room’s attention from start to finish, offering as many laughs during the event as youngsters have come to expect between the pages of her books. And walking away with their own renditions of her famous schoolboy character, the audience skipped out of the auditorium understanding how they too can build their own characters line by line.

Afterwards, tackling an impossibly long queue of bright-eyed fans, Liz’s colourful books clutched firmly in their grasp, comes the opportunity to get a signature, speak to the writer herself and take a personal moment to ask a question or simply tell her how much you have enjoyed her work. These book signings are, to me and my family at least, the icing on the cake of the fascinating programme of events. An opportunity to connect with these esteemed writers one-to-one, for children in particular, it is also a time to get advice tailored to the individual and often produces a lightbulb moment that they could follow in their literary hero’s footsteps.

More hilarity followed after we hot-footed it to the Parabola Arts Centre for Horrible Histories illustrator, Martin Brown. It can’t be in question that these side-splitting books, and the television series based on them, have brought history to life for young people but during this event, Martin also wanted to show the children that drawing is also not something for the few, but a skill that can be harnessed by anyone interested in it - even those who might previously have said ‘I can’t draw’. In a recurring theme throughout the day, the weird and wonderful was the name of the game and from the minds of his enthusiastic audience came some truly unique, if not frankly disturbing, characters expertly sketched out by the Australian artist. At the signing, my daughter was able to chat about our current project on the continent of his birth and learned a bit about where Martin hails from - learning here often comes in the most unexpected of ways and yet again demonstrates how those face-to-face meetings offer young people a unique take-away from the whole experience.

Another very quick dash to The Hive back at Montpellier Gardens for another event with the brilliant Anna James - this time part of a panel of authors joined by Skye McKenna, author of the Hedgewitch Series, Lee Newbery famous for penning The Last Firefox, and fiction and non-fiction children’s writer E. L. Norry. The storytellers, from hugely varied backgrounds, shared how they each tackled writing in a different way, got their inspiration from different places, diverged on their favourite fiction writers, and tapped into their own experiences to form their ‘Fantastic Adventures. What better way to demonstrate to children how they can become a successful author whoever they are? And in the signing queue this time, my daughter got chatting to another Pages & Co fan whose mother hailed from Columbia and she got to practise some of her recently acquired Spanish on the wonderfully encouraging parent. Did I mention learning at the lit fest comes in the least expected places?!

With such a huge variety of events crammed into just one day, the children (and adults) left with a heard swirling with ideas and possibilities and I think this is the crux of the Cheltenham Literature Festival’s programme of children’s events - getting young people thinking and gifting them the belief they can achieve whatever they set their minds to.

I’ll leave you with a line from Anna James describing the message she puts in her books: “Your imagination is the most powerful tool at your disposal.” Couldn’t agree more Anna.

:: There are still tickets left for some events at this year’s Cheltenham Literature Festival, which runs until 15 October, along with a programme of free events to enjoy.