Children's Laureate To Speak At Chiswick Book Festival
Cressida Cowell 'urgently' wants to boost creative writing and reading in schools
Cressida Cowell
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Cressida Cowell, who was named this week as the new Waterstones Children’s Laureate, will be speaking at this year’s Chiswick Book Festival on Sunday 15 September in St Michael & All Angels Church.
As well as talking about her new ‘Wizards of Once’ book Knock Three Times and the ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ series, she will be encouraging parents and teachers to woo children away from television and into books.
“Books and reading are magic and this magic must be available to absolutely everyone," Cowell said this week. She told BBC News she had drawn up a 10-point children’s charter but two things on her list were "most urgent" - boosting creative writing in schools and halting the decline of primary school libraries.
Cowell’s message has been strongly endorsed by the Chiswick Book Festival, which this week published its first newsletter for families and schools, highlighting many summer reading and writing activities for children in west London. It can be read on the Festival website - where schools and families can sign up for their own copy.
The Newsletter has been compiled by Lucy Chambers, co-ordinator of the Festival’s children’s events and Young People’s Poetry Competition. As a primary school library consultant and a vice-chair of the CILIP Schools Library Group, she is passionate about the role that school libraries can play in encouraging reading.
“It’s great news that Cressida Cowell is to be the children’s Laureate” she said. “She is an inspiring advocate for the magic of books and we wholeheartedly support her in her mission to encourage as many children as possible to enjoy reading and writing”.
Other events for children at this year’s Chiswick Book Festival include Roald Dahl’s Rotsome and Repulsant Words performed by word wizards Sara-Jane Arbury and Katie Balson; three critically acclaimed books with an environmental theme - Tigeropolis by R D Dikstra, Bee Alert by Barbara Rustin and Someone Swallowed Stanley by Sarah Roberts; and a creative writing workshop. All of the books will be on sale in Waterstones Chiswick, which will also run the bookstalls at the Festival.
Tickets will go on sale on Friday 26 July via the Festival website.
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July 11, 2019
