Auckland Writers Festival 16-21 May - Festival Fun for Children

AUCKLAND WRITERS FESTIVAL 16 - 21 May 2017     FREE FESTIVAL FUN FOR CHILDREN!      There’s a magical time awaiting younger readers at this year’s Festival. Sunday 21 May is Family Day and the kids go FREE! One of the world’s most popular children’s storytellers, Lauren Child appears on Saturday morning with her characters Charlie & Lola & Clarice & Ruby in tow and on Sunday, we celebrate 20 years of Harry Potter with Professor Frankie! Grab your free tickets quick to Magical Tales with performer Tanya Batt and actor and to writer and musician Apirana Taylor’s: A Story World before they’re all gone! For young adult readers we are thrilled to present gothic English story-teller Frances Hardinge, New York Times bestselling sci-fi writer Amie Kaufman, and transgender storyteller Ivan Coyote. Jennifer Niven and Emma Neale present a poignant session on the tangled web of adolescence. Kate Di Goldi makes a call for junior fiction and Welby Ings says exams should be abolished! LOVE FAMILY STORIES? BOOK NOW!   Huge thanks to Freemasons Foundation for supporting our Family Day.     CHARLIE & LOLA & CLARICE AND RUBY! Join the creator of one some of the world’s most beloved children’s characters, Lauren Child as she captures us with tales of child sleuth Ruby Redfort, “one of the best things to happen to British fiction”, together with utterly original Clarice Bean and the redoubtable siblings Charlie and Lola. Bring the kids (who get in free) for an hour of laughter and illumination as we find out what  next for these wonderful characters. Charlie & Lola & Clarice & Ruby. HARRY POTTER HIJINKS! It’s the 20th-anniversary of the Harry Potter books, and Professor Frankie (award-winning Australian performer and author, Nadia Sunde), directs an hour of mayhem in celebration. Expect Spells Duels, Quidditch Demos, Harry Potter Trivia Questions and more, with audience volunteers and lots of prizes up for grabs in Harry Potter Hijinks! Kids, come dressed as your favourite character and prepare yourselves for fun and prizes!     INTERACTIVE FAMILY FUN!         The Herald Theatre and its Foyer becomes a wonderland for children all day on Sunday 21 May. Immerse your under 5s in a world of hand’s on exploration including colouring in a Harry Potter mural, craft, games and book activities. From bugs and princesses to sheep and...a capsicum...?!  Extend your children’s love of books and reading with us! CHECK OUT FAMILY DAY!     APIRANA TAYLOR Get down to the Heartland Festival Room in the centre of Aotea Square where  multi-talented Apirana Taylor entertains in A Story World with story readings from his books, performance and a spot of music in a captivating session for younger readers. TANYA BATT  Kids will love stepping into the magical world of professional storyteller Tanya Batt in Magical Tales, featuring stories from near and far away from home. Batt is a former teacher who has toured her work internationally.     FRANCES HARDINGE  Join Frances Hardinge in conversation with Kate De Goldi for a journey to the darker side of story-telling. Hardinge positions her seventh novel as “a Victorian Gothic mystery with added paleontology, blasting powder, post-mortem photography and feminism.” The page-turner tells the tale of 14-year-old Faith, who wants to study natural science just like her mysteriously killed father. The Lie Tree. AMIE KAUFMAN  Top-selling American YA science fiction writer Amie Kaufman is renowned for multi-textual collaborations that take readers off-piste. In Illuminae, created with Jay Kristoff and optioned by Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment, the storytelling is dynamic and incorporates transcripts, interviews and graphics. Learn about multi-layered storytelling and be transported to other universes in Illuminae.     KATE DE GOLDI One of New Zealand’s most cherished children’s writers, Kate De Goldi is alarmed at this country’s lack of books for junior readers. If this literary commentator is worried, so should we all. Listen to her outline the problem, and some solutions in this FREE session: Speakers’ Corner: Fiction in Crisis. WELBY INGS Educationalist and award-winning Auckland University of Technology Professor of Design, Welby Ings, author of Disobedient Teaching slams our assessment-obsessed, creativity-stifling, education system. Should we listen to him? Come along and make your own mind up in this FREE session Speakers corner: Exams Be Damned.     LIGHT AND SHADE          American Jennifer Niven is the bestselling author of poignant stories that reveal the often tangled experience of adolescence, including Holding Up the Universe and All the Bright Places. Emma Neale is the author of the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards shortlisted Billy Bird – about a boy who kaah-kaahs like a kea – which is a serious but humorous exploration of familial grief. Niven and Neale discuss the ways in which fiction can refract and illuminate the rigors of family life from childhood to parenthood, and provide both consolation and hope in FREE session, Light and Shade.     BOOK GIVEAWAYS        We have a full set of Frances Hardinge books to give away!  Please email to enter the draw by Wed 10 May. CHARLIE AND LOLA We have three copies of Charlie and Lola's One Thing to giveaway! Please email to enter the draw by Wed 10 May.     Check out the full programme online   View the programme ebook   Festival tickets on sale NOW!