The Hong Kong International Young Readers Festival Opens March 11th

Date: 11 - 22 March 2013

The Hong Kong International Young Readers Festival (YRF) is the first and only English literary festival in Hong Kong specially for children up to 14 years of age. The YRF is run by Hong Kong International Literary Festival Limited (the “Company”), a registered company limited by guarantee that is run as a not-for-profit organisation.

Since 2001, the Hong Kong International Literary Festival Limited has run the Hong Kong International Literary Festival (“HKILF”). HKILF was voted “Best For The Mind” in Time Magazine in 2006.

The 2nd edition of YRF will open 11 – 22 March 2013. There will be events for children and their parents as well as schools.

PROGRAM FOR PARENTS AND CHILDREN:

Dr Pam Macintyre: What and How Kids are Reading Now

• March 11, 2013
• Suitable for parents, educators and teachers
• Venue: Hong Kong Central Library Activity Room 1
• Cost: ＄150
• Join Melbourne University academic and Viewpoint editor, Dr Pam Macintyre, to find out about the trends in reading today. Dr Macintyre will offer tips on the hottest reads around, and on how to ignite childrens’, and young adults’ love of books.

Dr Pam Macintyre: Survival Strategies for Parents and Educators (Session I)

• March 12, 2013
• Suitable for parents, educators and teachers
• Venue: Hong Kong Central Library Activity Room 2
• Cost: $150
• Getting children enthusiastic about books is what teachers and parents love, but what are the practicalities? Dr Pam Macintyre talks about new ways of looking at storytelling, classrooms and just how we should define ‘books’ and ‘reading’.

David Seow: Introduction to Picture Book Writing

• March 13, 2013
• Suitable for children aged 6 to 9
• Venue: Hong Kong Central Library Activity Room 1
• Cost: $150
• This workshop will focus on how one can generate ideas for a picture book, the theme and plot of picture book, and storyboarding a picture book. By the end of the workshop the participants will have an outline for their very first picture book story.

Sally Go Round the Stars: Nursery Rhyme Fun (Session I)

• March 16, 2013
• Suitable for children aged 5 or under
• Venue: Hong Kong Central Library Activity Room 2
• Cost: $80
• Interactive nursery rhyme fun for young children with Irish writer, Sarah Webb. Join Sarah as she shares Irish and international rhymes from her popular collection, Sally Go Round the Stars with young children and their parents. Will include some nursery rhyme colouring.

Robert Newton: From Fire-fighter to Writer

• March 16, 2013
• Suitable for children aged 10 and above
• Venue: HKCSS Duke of Windsor Social Service Building
• Cost: $120/$70
• Robert Newton, award-winning author of four novels for children and young adults and a fulltime fire-fighter, will talk about writing and how he balances the work of fighting fires and sitting down to write.

Sally Go Round the Stars: Nursery Rhyme Fun (Session II)

• March 16, 2013
• Suitable for children aged 5 or under
• Venue: Hong Kong Central Library Activity Room 2
• Cost: $80
• Interactive nursery rhyme fun for young children with Irish writer, Sarah Webb. Join Sarah as she shares Irish and international rhymes from her popular collection, Sally Go Round the Stars with young children and their parents. Will include some nursery rhyme colouring.

Ellen Leou: Writing and Illustrating in Hong Kong

• March 16, 2013
• Suitable for children aged 11 and above, parents and teachers
• Venue: Hong Kong Central Library Activity Room 1
• Cost: $120/$70
• When we begin any creative project we must always begin with inspiration. In the too close proximity of life in Hong Kong it is sometimes hard to creatively think and see with the different perspective that inspiration requires. Being both the author and illustrator, Ellen Leou will discuss the nature and process of her inspiration and the final creation, using her storybooks and illustrations as examples.

Sarah Webb: Write-a-rama Workshop

• March 16, 2013
• Suitable for children aged 9 to 11
• Venue: Hong Kong Central Library Activity Room 1
• Cost: $180
• How do you write a great story? What makes a character jump off the page and excite the reader? This workshop with Sarah Webb will use word and story games to focus on the basic keystones of writing – words, sentences, ideas, characters, and plot. Sarah will work with the class to discuss the important elements of writing and help them to hone their writing skills. Favourite words, how to make ‘boring’ sentences more exciting, memory and its importance to writers, feelings and emotion, and how to use these in your work are topics which will be looked at throughout the workshop. Sarah will also introduce some fun writing games to help aspiring young authors get their creative juices flowing.

Sarah Webb: True Stories: How I Became a Writer

• March 17, 2013
• Suitable for children aged 8 and above
• Venue: Hong Kong Central Library Activity Room 1
• Cost: $120/$70
• Using toys, clothes and photos from her childhood, Sarah Webb will talk about growing up in Dublin and how she became a writer. She will also read from her Ask Amy Green series and take some questions from the audience.

Robert Newton: Creating Character Workshop

• March 17, 2013
• Suitable for children aged 12 or above
• Venue: Hong Kong Central Library Activity Room 1
• Cost: $180
• Robert Newton, the author of the historical novels, Runner, The Black Dog Gang and When We Were Two, will talk about how to create an attractive character in stories in this hands-on workshop.

Link: event booking

Download: full program

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries: yrf@youngreadersfestival.org.hk

Website: http://www.youngreadersfestival.org.hk/