Children find book festival literally fascinating

By ALAN PERROTT

Take a hike, Cat in the Hat and Biggles - the kids' new favourites are Scarface Claw and The Day My Bum Went Psycho.

The modern characters and titles attracted thousands to the Aotea Centre yesterday for the free family day of the ninth annual Storylines Festival.

Excited ankle-biters sat in enraptured groups throughout the venue as storytellers and authors read their favourite tales.

Some of the more fervent fans could recite the lines along with them.

Scarface Claw, the resident bad guy from the Hairy Maclary stories, was the big attraction for 5-year-old Lucy Josephson.

"He's scary and I like scary stories," she said, before dashing off for a peek at television star Suzy Cato.

Actually, the children's television presenter seemed to be quite a hit with a few dads as well.

But you weren't a true book fan unless you had visited the facepainting booth.

Spiderman is obviously big with the boys at the moment, but Hannah Edwards from Howick wasn't going to leave until she had been painted as a butterfly.

Hannah, 3 1/2, wasn't sure how it would be done as she was fairly certain butterflies don't have faces: "I just want to feel like a butterfly".

Event coordinator Robin Houlker said the annual book festival was getting bigger every year, showing that reading remained a passion among children.

Each Hairy Maclary Hootenanny attracted an early queue of fans, and there were a few tears from those who couldn't get inside.

The children's literature quiz attracted thousands of keen readers ready to put their knowledge to the test.

St Cuthbert's junior school came out on top in the 11-team national final, which went down to the wire.

Team manager Barbara Newman said her young charges got a big kick out of the victory.

"It was very tough, but I was as excited as they were.

"It was a wonderful morning. I'm passionate about children's books, I read them all the time."