THE WOKINGHAM Children’s Book Festival was a fantastic success over the weekend, said the borough’s children’s librarian.
Elizabeth McDonald, young people and families outreach manager, helped coordinate the event, working across the borough’s libraries.
She said the two-day event returned over the weekend with a variety of talks for all ages.
In it’s fourth year, the festival featured nine authors, hosting in-person and virtual talks at the town hall.
Ms McDonald said families seemed to have a brilliant time at the event.
“The in-person sessions were really lovely, everyone felt very safe, it was kind of normal,” she said.
While preparing for the festival, Ms McDonald said she was unsure if it would be able to go ahead in-person at all.
With talks in the town hall allowed, this brought a lot of excitement to the young visitors, who were able to meet their favourite authors in person, she explained.
“Lots of children were there so early, because they couldn’t wait to meet the authors,” she said.
Authors that were hosting sessions on Saturday made a last-minute plan to visit the town’s Waterstone’s, for a post-talk book signing.
Ms McDonald said one family, who had tuned in virtually, rushed down to the town to have their copy of a book signed.
She said this shows the event was a success both online and in-person, with all attendees enjoying the talks, no matter where they listened from.
Kicking off on Saturday was best-selling author Holly Webb, who was exploring themes around environmentalism and friendship.
She also shared tales from her Earth Friends books and explained how small changes can make a big difference.
“It was really inspiring for the children,” Ms McDonald said.
The children’s librarian said her favourite guest was poet Joshua Seigal, winner of the 2020 LOLLIES, who shared poems from his brand new collection Yapping Away.
And Ms McDonald said it was lovely to be able to host international authors, including Swapna Haddow, who joined the event live from New Zealand, and talked about the first book in her brand-new series, Bad Panda.
