A FEST FOR KID BOOKWORMS
Kids, get ready for a literary adventure. The 10th edition of the Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival will take place from April 18 to 28 at the Expo Centre. The festival is being organised under the theme ‘Your future ... just a book away’
sharjah — A total of 134 publishers from 18 Arab and foreign nations will participate in the 10th edition of the Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival (SCRF). It will be held from April 18 to 28 at Sharjah Expo Centre.
The SCRF, hosted under the theme, ‘Your Future… Just a Book Away’ by the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA) will host 286 guests from 121 countries and will have 2,600 events and activities. This year will also be characterised by distinctive features such as 3D books, Pop-up books exhibition, Future Machine exhibition, SCRF mascots and Little Chef’ competition for age groups 6-10 and 11-16 years.
Addressing a Press conference, Ahmed Al Ameri, chairman of the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA), said: “Of the 134 participating publishers, the UAE tops the list with 62 representations, followed by Lebanon (22), Egypt (21), Jordan and the UK with five publishers each, in addition to USA, South Korea, and China, among others.”
SCRF 2018 will host of series of interactive activities spanning several programmes under the main themes of Kids Activities, Cultural Programmes, Cultural Café, Kids’ Creative Café, Social Media Café and Cookery Corner.
For the first time, workshops will be held in spaces that will be similar to labs where participants will enjoy a heightened level of interaction. It was revealed that some of these activities will be held in the same areas where publishers will set up their exhibition stands to bring children closer to books and other sources of knowledge while enabling parents to enjoy these events with their children.
Festival mascots
In a bid to make the festival more appealing to children, four new characters have been brought to the SCRF. These mascots — Wamda (Flash), Qalam (Pen), Noqta (Dot) and Shuaa (Beam) — depicted as inhabitants of a distant land and a future far away, will be in Sharjah throughout the festival to accompany the young festival-goers on their journey of fun and learning. More than 1,200 name suggestions were entered as part of an SCRF social media contest. The winners whose names were chosen will be awarded at the festival.
Special guest speakers
Khoula Al Mujaini, events coordinator at the SBA, outlined the list of the headlining Arab and foreign authors and artists this year. They include Egyptian actress Sabrin, Bahraini actress Haifa Hussein, Egyptian actor Abdul Rahman Abu Zahra, Algerian artist Tareq Al Arabi Tarkan, and Syrian actress and dubbing artist Amal Hawijeh.
Foreign guests include British children’s book author Sibéal Pounder, American poet and author Mark Gonzalez, award-winning Indian children’s author Natasha Sharma, Indian actor and producer Varun Pruthi, British children’s author and illustrator Ed Vere, and American awardwinning children’s author Miranda Paul.