What our bloggers are most looking forward to…

Our young bloggers explain which events they’re most excited about at this year’s Bath Children’s Literature Festival…

Rose Goddard, age 8:

“I’ve just got back from the library. My bag is full of books.

Now I’m sharpening all my pencils ready for Horrible Histories Deadly Drawings with illustrator Martin Brown. I love Horrible Histories and am looking forward to a mix of drawing tips, jokes and fun history facts!

When I’ve finished sharpening my pencils, I am going to snuggle up with my dogs whilst reading about Finding Gobi – Dion Leonard’s talk about his experience running in the desert and his friendship with ‘Gobi’ a stray dog. Finding Gobi sounds like a really lovely story – I want to hear what happened to Gobi.

Just two more days to go to the Bath Children’s Literature Festival! I went last year and really enjoyed seeing Chris Packham and Chris Hadfield. Now I’m on countdown to events this year. I’ll be blogging about Horrible Histories and Finding Gobi.

Can’t wait!”

Christopher Cooper, age 8:

Oscar Lovell, age 9:

“I like the bright colours and expressions Joe Berger’s pictures have, so I am excited to be going to his Drawing Masterclass because I’m going to learn how he works out what colours to use and how he animates his characters’ faces. All illustrators and cartoonists have their own styles and I’m interested in finding out about Joe Bergers. It will be super cool to have a new type of drawing style in my mind that I can show my friends, too.”

“I love Kieran Larwood’s books about Podkin, Paz and Pook and I can’t wait to meet the man himself and finding out how he writes such good books!

Ever since I read the Narnia books by CS Lewis, and Tom Gates by Liz Pichon, I’ve loved reading books, but I never thought I’d find a series as exciting as the Narnia ones.

The Narnia stories got me hooked with its magical world and amazing talking creatures, and Podkin One Ear is the same. I love the strong characters Kieran Larwood writes about – Podkin, Paz, Pook, Crom – and I love the excitement, and the tension.

I look forward to reading about Podkin’s adventures every night and always want to keep going when I reach the end of the chapter. I haven’t read any Gill Lewis books yet, but they’re going to be next on my list, along with The Hobbit!”

You can read more on Oscar’s blog here.

Alex Lea, age 12:

“I’m really excited about the Bath Children’s Literature Festival. I come to the festival every year but this is the first time that I will be blogging about it. I will be writing about two events that look epic. The first is Dragons! With Jasper Fforde and Scarlett Thomas on Saturday 30 September at 1.30pm and the second event is Award Winners with Gillian Cross, Geraldine McCaughrean and Alex Wheatle on Wednesday 4th October at 7pm.  

 I really enjoyed reading Dragon’s Green and The Last Dragonslayer and I can’t wait for the event with the authors.  Both of the books were clever and surprising, full of twists and turns. I am also very excited about the Award Winners event. After Tomorrow by Gillian Cross is one of my favourite books of all time and, when I was younger, I remember being enthralled by Peter Pan in Scarlet by Geraldine McCaughrean. I have not yet read any books by Alex Wheatle but I have ordered the first of his Crongton books from the library and hope it arrives before the event. He sounds amazing. 

 I look forward to telling you all about the events once they’ve happened. Watch this space!“

Lois Edwards, age 11:

“This is my 3rd year blogging for the Bath Children’s Literature Festival and I’m really excited to be invited back again.

I’ve been going to the Literature festival since I was little (I’m 11 now), I like the festival because the events are all quite different and you can pick the ones you are most interested in. I’ve been to ones where the authors are talking about their new books before they are in the shops, this is a great way to find out what books you might want to read next or put on your Christmas list! Some of the events give you tips on how to write or illustrate books, I loved Steven Lenton’s where he showed us how to draw characters from his books. And some of the events are great for younger children because you can dress up and make crafts to do with the book.

This year I will be seeing the Laugh Out Loud Funny Show, I chose this one because I love comedy. There are four people presenting it, Michael Rosen, Sue Hendra, Paul Linnet and Liz Pichon, I saw Liz Pichon last year talking about the Tom Gates books and she was amazing so hopefully it will be good again. Look out for my blog after the event to see what I thought of it.

You can read my blogs from the previous festivals on my blog loloscribbles.wordpress.com.”

See what vlogger Nik Nikiforou is looking forward to…

Hannah Price, age 13:

“Next month I will be making my annual trip to the BathKidsLitFest, and this year it will be even more exciting as I’ve been asked to write blog posts about the two events I will attend.  

Firstly, I’ll be seeing The History Girls: Emma Carroll and Eloise Williams on 1st October. I have previously had the privilege of listening to Emma Carroll at book signings and it is always fascinating to hear authors of historical fiction explaining why they have chosen to write novels set in particular eras, and how they go about their background research. I am anticipating reading “Gaslight” by Eloise Williams before I attend the event as I have read all of Emma Carroll’s novels previously. 

Looking further back into ancient history, I’m also very excited about Norse Myths: Francesca Simon and Kevin Crossley-Holland on 8th October. This is a subject about which I know very little, so I am very much looking forward to learning more from these two extremely talented authors and I aim to read their books before the event. 

 So, just a couple of weeks to go and then I’ll be making my way to Bath for what I hope will be extremely enjoyable and informative events!“

You can follow Hannah on Twitter: @BookieCookie

Catherine and Faye, age 9:

“We are very excited to be blogging about the Chris Riddell event. He is our favourite author because he expresses his feelings into his work and says that girls can be heroes not just boys.

These are our favourite books:

Faye: Goth girl

Catherine: Ottoline at sea

Why we like them:

Faye: Because Ada is so adventures and kind

Catherine: Because Ottoline is so odd and is very entertaining

We hope that he will write more books about odd and adventurous girls and sign our books. Also we would like a picture from him signed by him.”