A children’s two-day literature festival, billed as the biggest of its kind in the UK, will be opened in Dunfermline tomorrow by a well-known champion of books for children Sarah Brown, wife of Prime Minister and proud Fifer Gordon Brown.
The Carnegie Children’s Book Festival marks the 70th anniversary of the Carnegie Medal for Children’s Books and the 125th anniversary of the building of the world’s first Carnegie Library, in Dunfermline, birthplace of Andrew Carnegie. It also marks the opening of a new state-of-the-art library in the town at Duloch Park.
The event features activities, workshops, talks and readings, aimed at children aged 18 months and over and their parents, and led by children’s authors and arts specialists. Events will also be held at Duloch Park Library, and in a specially constructed Spiegeltent and a traditional Indian tipi village set up in town. The Spiegeltent is the venue for a Saturday night Orcadian-style family ceilidh. Guest of honour will be Mollie Hunter.
Among more than a dozen well-known authors taking part are writer and traveller Elizabeth Laird, whose book The Garbage King is set in modern-day Ethiopia; James Robertson, who is translating some of Roald Dahl’s books into Scots and will be encouraging nine to 12-year-olds to help him; Theresa Breslin; Mal Peet; Marcus Sedgewick; and Cathy Cassidy.
Activity sessions offer drama, football stories, animation, craft work, singing, dancing and music-making.
T 01383 312606
* www.carnegiechildrensbookfestival.co.uk
