PRESS RELEASE

The 2008 Linton Children's Book Festival came to a suitably energetic and entertaining finale on the afternoon of Sunday 11th May when author Joe Craig dazzled the audience with improvised new endings to his popular novels. Children from Linton and the surrounding area had enjoyed over forty separate events at various venues around the village in the previous eight days – aided and abetted by some glorious weather.

Local historian Garth Collard kicked off the Festival on Saturday 3rd May, leading a children's history walk that recreated the Battle of Linton that took place in 1648 during the English Civil War.

More than 70 people came to hear Garth describe the battle with the help of a Cavalier and a Roundhead. The group followed the route of the Roundhead soldiers into the village and imagined the fighting that took place on the very same streets 350 years ago.

During the following week, Linton children entered into the spirit of things by devising a ‘Design a Bookmark’ competition and writing short stories. They enjoyed performances from the Linton Theatre Workshop, Chalemina music group and author Julia Jarman. A particular highlight was the visit by Spill the Beans performance poets whose boisterous humour went down a storm at the Granta special school.

Linton playgroups have been treated to music sessions and stories by the talented Marion Leeper, who on this occasion was accompanied by a Gruffalo! Local people also generously hosted garden storytimes in the afternoons that were hugely popular – no doubt assisted by the warm weather.

The final weekend began on the morning of Saturday 10th May at Linton Library. Local mum and palaeontologist Liz Hide told the story of Stone Girl Bone Girl and showed the children some real fossils. Also visiting was Sophie Smiley, a local author of books for younger children about a football-crazy family.

On Saturday afternoon at Linton Infants School, a large crowd was buzzing with excitement and the cafe did a roaring trade in ice-pops.

In the school hall, Obelon Puppets presented ‘The Singing Storycloth’ on a beautiful stage with stories that the children found captivating. Then Tony Mitton, one of Cambridge's favourite children's poets, read from his work and coped admirably with those children that decided to join in.

Outside, the Fairyland Trust ran a popular wand-making workshop in a beautiful circular canvas tent. The sessions started with a magical story; then children had to choose the wood for their wands and learnt about its magical properties. The sessions ended with a sprinkling of magic fairy dust.

Away from the main stage, Cathy Myer enchanted children with her poetry coat, Curwen Press taught children the art of printmaking and Emma Mason entertained the very young with songs and rhymes. Jeanette Hurworth of Biddles Ltd. told stories about her two dogs Alphie and Archie – who came along for the day as well.

One of the many highlights of the day was the closing talk by Axel Scheffler, world-famous illustrator of ‘The Gruffalo’. After his presentation, Axel stayed for nearly two hours to sign and personally illustrate every single child's book. He also presented the winners of the bookmark competition with prizes generously donated by Linton Zoo. Biddles Ltd. will print up the winning designs to be sold in aid of animal conservation projects at the zoo.

The winners were:

Reception: Natalia Allen for “Dibble Dobble”
Year 1: Bethany Layton for “Jumping Croc-a-Duck”
Year 2: Elisha Keep for “Snapper Crocker Ellie”
Year 3: Holly Bowie for “Chip-a-Lion”
Year 4: Rhiannon Glasssmith for “The Dreder”
Year 5: Scott Catley for “Pere - P9”
Year 6: Joe Richardson for “The Oo-Ballo”

On Sunday 11th May, the scene changed to Linton Village College where award-winning poet and broadcaster Valerie Bloom enchanted her audience with songs and stories inspired by her childhood in Jamaica and south London.

Author Stuart Hill entertained us with anecdotes from his long and varied career and charmed sceptical audience members with his most convincing ghost stories. He talked about his popular trilogy ‘The Icemark Chronicles’ and described how he became an "overnight success", after 31 years of trying to get published….

For those who preferred a more hands-on experience, there were two writing workshops run by new author Alan Shea, and experienced non-fiction writer Deborah Chancellor.

Everyone enjoyed the Spymasters Challenge, a fun event devised especially for the Festival by Bob Richardson of Spymasters, Bar Hill. The mission for our amateur spies was to recover a top-secret computer chip before it fell into the wrong hands.

Participants had to dodge cameras, step over laser beams and avoid setting off alarms as well as cracking codes and solving puzzles.

The winning team was the Watts Family who won a free mission for 5 to Spymasters. Runners up received a discount voucher to Spymasters and Joe Craig's latest book.

The afternoon was brought to an upbeat end with Joe Craig, one of Britain's top writers of spy fiction for children. Joe dazzled us with his quick-witted, interactive and very entertaining session on the key ingredients necessary for telling a story. Thanks to suggestions from the Linton audience, we now expect Joe’s next book to feature smelly socks, pet cows and a girl called ‘Apple’!

The Linton Children’s Book Festival was funded by the National Lottery’s Awards for All programme, Linton Parish Council, the Anderson Benefaction Fund and the Making Music Outreach programme.

The event is entirely run by volunteers from Linton. If you are interested in providing sponsorship for this event in 2010, please get in touch with the organisers via our website www.lintonbookfest.org.