ANGELA KIVERSTEIN

ALITTLE GIRL sits, engrossed in a book. From its pages soar forth furry animals, while around her float a planet with a rose growing on it, a witch wearing a school scarf, a balloon basket, an army of playing cards and other literary curiosities.

And literary curiosity is just what is being encouraged, for this reading child is the cover girl for Bookniks, the festival of children’s books taking place at JW3 on February 10.

Sophie Nathan, literature programmer at JW3, finds this image inspirational. “When I think back to being a child reading, I just really remember that feeling, that everything is possible, anywhere is possible,” she says.

No wonder she is looking forward to the Bookniks discussion on Fantastic Realms and How to Find Them, in which authors

Jacob Sager Weinstein (The

Isadora Moon: half fairy, half vampire Cartoonist Zoom Rockman and author /illustrator Harriet Muncaster

City of Secret Rivers, The City of Guardian Stones),

(The Door that led to Where, Maggot Moon,

(Tales from Schwarzgarten) reveal some of the secrets of their magical world-building. The talk will be chaired by Daniel Hahn: “He knows everything about children’s literature that you need to know,” says Nathan, “he is The Man.”

Another highlight for Nathan is the Israeli Bookshelf, new to Bookniks this year.

“This brings some famous and some new authors from Israel to meet new audiences,” she says. Moran Yogev, illustrator of Yerus goes to Jerusalem (a crowd-funded debut about an Ethiopian child’s journey), will talk about the lives, culture and history of the Ethiopian Israeli community, while author Shoham Smith (well known in Israel but less familiar here) will read from and discuss her new book, Signs in the Well, the story of Rabbi Akiva’s journey from goat-herder to spiritual leader.