Literary beginnings: Children’s Festival starts tomorrow

The festival would be attended by more than fifty speakers and authors from across the country.

LAHORE: More than 50 speakers and authors, including a few from India, will participate in the two-day Children’s Literature Festival, scheduled to begin on November 25.

The festival will be held at Children’s Library Complex and is being held in collaboration the Foundation Open Society Institute, US Consulate Genral and the British Council.

Ameena Saiyid of the Oxford University Press said, during a press conference, that the event promised two days of fun filled learning for children.

Saiyid said that the festival will also include sessions for adults as well.

Dr Arifa Syeda, and the ambassadors of the Children’s Literature Festival including Nadia Jamil and Adeel Hashmi were also present at the press conference. Dr Syeda narrated a few Urdu stories for the children present at the press conference.

Hashmi called the festival “the first step towards inculcating the habit of reading in children”.  Jamil, Hashmi and Sania Saeed will judge a dramatic reading competition during the festival.

Kamini Masood, a grade 10 student at the Lahore Grammar School and the festival’s young ambassador, said that she hoped that the event will help children in improving their expression.

Baela Raza Jamil of the Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi said that the chief minister, who is expected to inaugurate the festival, will also read to the children.

The Children’s Literature Festival will go on for two days from 10 am to 5 pm at the Children’s Library Complex.

There will be a book fair, live puppet shows, story telling, creative writing, poetry recitals and other interactive activities for children.

Dr Marilyn Wyatt, the wife of US Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter, is expected to read from Tom Sawyer on the first day of the festival while Nigar Nazar will draw cartoons for the children.

A play Jungle Jungle Zindabad, about preserving the environment, and a musical narrative, conducted by Ali Noor and Ali Hamza of Noori band in collaboration with Valerie Kaul, a teacher at the Lahore American School, will also be performed.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 24^th, 2011.