Our programme has just arrived from the printer and is being packaged to be sent out to schools. We are very pleased with the design, which opens out into an A3 poster with the whole week’s events at a glance. We hope this will help you to mark up and plan your visits. If you cannot wait to get hold of one, you will find them in Waterstones and your local libraries and you could collect some in person from the Schools Library Service in Central Library (Monday – Friday in office hours) but you can see a pdf version attached here!
Coventry-Book-Festival-2014
Well done to everyone who leapt on the opportunities as soon as term started. The Horrid Henry party at the Ricoh Arena on 6th June sold out in 48 hours! It looks as if we shall have to have a return visit for all those disappointed fans. All those of you lucky enough to come along remember to choose your school’s best birthday card to present to Francesca Simon (and HH will be there too – larger than life and twice as naughty I am told). Also do come along with your HH mask’s to wear. We are hoping to tempt out local TV to see 1000 children wearing HH masks!
The wonderful event with Jacqueline Wilson is also now sold out- we made the right decision to limit school spaces! The good news for anybody that has been disappointed is that we are filming the whole event and we hope that this will become a fabulous resource for schools to use and share. The competition to find the very special student who will make the presentation speech is well under way. Remember it will help us enormously if you choose and submit only your top 5 entries! The closing date is Friday 13th June.
Schools that have signed up as Festival Friends have been making good use of their sneak preview and advance opportunities to book but that is only fair since it is their financial support which helps the Festival put on these exciting FREE events. 59% of available tickets have gone already! But there are still plenty of exciting opportunities available and especially those for families and adults so do please make sure you inform your parents to take a look at
www.literallycoventry2014.eventbrite.co.uk
Please remember that The Wimpy Kid Show at the Belgrade Theatre is not booked via our website but directly with the theatre. This show has been wowing Festivals all around the country and it seemed like too good a chance to miss for our final Saturday event on 28th June. Tickets are on sale now at
http://www.belgrade.co.uk/event/the-wimpy-kid-show.
Again we have made every effort to minimise the cost. Please note that the cheapest way to book tickets is via the website and not in person or by phone.
You should by now all have received your exciting parcels with your FREE copies of The Ultimate Truth- A Travis Delaney mystery by Kevin Brooks. I am sure your keen readers will have snapped it up. Don’t forget if demand is high then you can order extra copies at a very special price (cheaper than Amazon). Local libraries are also supporting the Literally Reads project and copies can be obtained there. It is a great Dads and Lads read so do encourage some family reading. I think Dads will be surprised at what a pacey and exciting thriller it is! Secondary schools shadowing the Carnegie Medal will not be surprised since author Kevin Brooks is shortlisted for the medal this year and is generally acknowledged to be one of the top authors writing for young people today.
Kevin Brooks is also the celebrity quizmaster at the City Final on Saturday 28th June of the popular Booked Up quiz organised by Secondary schools with their feeder Primary schools. Information has been sent out to schools, but do contact Schools Library Service to put you in touch with your local heats.
One of the most popular Festival events in the past has been the Film Challenges devised by our brilliant School Library Service. In response to popular demand we are running both a Secondary and a Primary event this year. On Monday 23rd June Secondary schools can watch Hunger Games: Catching Fire and then enter teams of 4 in The Hunger Games Challenge part 2. On Thursday 26th June Primary schools can enter the Dragonese Challenge after watching the film of How to Train Your Dragon. You will be receiving more details of how to enter teams and book places directly from SLS but do contact them on 02476 832338 if you want to know more.
The partnership with Warwick Arts Centre Cinema is a key part of our activity since the link between films and books is so vibrant and engaging. For those who may miss out on the visit with Jacqueline Wilson there is an opportunity to go and watch the film of Dustbin Baby on the morning of Tuesday 25th June. We are naturally sad that Meg Rosoff had to pull out (maybe next year) but we have an amazing replacement! There is no hotter topic at the moment than knife crime and one of the most powerful books looking at that issue in relation to schools and bullying was The Knife That Killed Me by Anthony McGowan. A film has been made of that book and we will be seeing it before it goes on general release and have the author himself to discuss it with afterwards, this will be on Wednesday 25th June. For the very youngest of our schoolchildren there have been some delightful films created linked to favourite books and we are proud to present The First Film Experience on Friday 27th June showing a compilation of Lost and Found, The Bear and Where The Wild Things Are.
Other highlights include the first visit to Coventry of internationally best-selling author Eoin Colfer of Artemis Fowl fame on Friday 27th June. We have a fantastic panel of 3 top authors talking about their geeky obsessions with gadgets and graphic novels which they believe helped them become writers! Of course the centrepiece on Wednesday will be the Coventry Inspiration Book Awards Ceremony and we are delighted that so many of the winners are doing school events for us too! Look out for Abie Longstaff, Gemma Merino, Richard Kurti, Nigel Hinton and Guy Bass. We have top picture book authors and illustrators including our very own World Book Day official artist Alex T Smith and exciting new debut authors for teens and younger readers too. There are some fascinating adult and family events too – there “Literally” is something for everyone, don’t miss it!
Literally...Coventry Book Festival 