Storylines Festival has it all for fans of kids' books

By MARGIE THOMSON

The movie Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban won't be the only fantasy show in town next week.

The bespectacled wizard will be temporarily overshadowed by the 11th annual Storylines Festival, part of which carries a fantasy theme, and a week of fantastic, mostly free, book-related events for children and grown-ups interested in children's literature.

The festival kicks off on Monday with the week-long Story Tour, during which 10 writers, illustrators and storytellers will visit 72 schools and childcare centres in the Auckland region and the Auckland, Waitakere and Manukau cities, involving around 10,000 children.

The following weekend, things will become boisterous at the Aotea Centre as around 20,000 people, most of them children, flock to the free family day on Sunday June 20, where many more authors and illustrators will read, draw and perform for their small admirers, run workshops on how to write and illustrate books, answer their questions and sign autographs.

It's enough to warm the heart of anyone phobic about the effect of the screen on children's learning and leisure and a great fillip to the local publishing scene to see that children have genuine heroes among our writers and illustrators.

Distinguished hands such as Margaret Mahy, Joy Cowley and Tessa Duder have been longtime stalwarts of Storylines, and their readings are always packed.

However, with around 40 writers and illustrators involved in the festival, plenty of newer personalities are winning the hearts of young fans.

V.M. Jones, for instance, is sure to attract crowds following the stunning success of her first two novels Buddy and Juggling With Mandarins at the last two New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards, and her as-yet unfinished fantasy series, The Karazan Quartet.

Organiser Robin Houlker has steadfastly resisted pressure to make Storylines a paying event. That it remains free is crucial to her philosophy of making the festival and children's literature accessible to everyone, although this aspect has meant the festival has walked an 11-year knife-edge, with funding always a desperate issue.

But despite the worries, the festival has grown annually, and this year spreads to New Plymouth and Wellington, which is running its first Storylines Family Day on Saturday, June 19 at the Westpac St James Theatre.

Storylines is always an elaborate combination of events, too many to unite easily under a single theme. As well as the events for children, the festival puts on a literature seminar for adults, and its theme this year, thanks to the international buzz around writers such as J.K. Rowling, Philip Pullman and the perennial J.R.R. Tolkein and C.S. Lewis, is "Fantasy: The Crossover Genre".

The crossover refers to that phenomenon where adults turn to books intended for children, which are rich enough to hold their interest, and even to win their prizes (for example, Philip Pullman's upset win of the for-adult Whitbread literary prize two years ago for his children's trilogy, His Dark Materials).

Storylines has invited literary heavyweights from both sides of the Tasman to help to sort through the answers to such questions as: What are the implications of these blurred boundaries and appetite for fantasy for authors and publishers? Where do booksellers and librarians place these books?Where do teachers stand? And does this newly destabilised literary world enrich and inspire the young reader?

Seminar panel member, New Zealand fantasy writer Sherryl Jordan, is one of the best-kept secrets of New Zealand writing - an odd thing to say about someone who has won several pages worth of literary prizes in the United States and Europe, including a presence on the Whitcoulls top 100 children's books list for Winter of Fire.

Yet surprisingly few people have heard of her. Her latest novel, The Hunting of the Last Dragon, is just out here but has already won several awards in the US, where she is published by Simon and Schuster.

She will be teaming up on the panel with Australian fantasy writer-du-jour Garth Nix, whose Sabriel, Lirael and, most recently, Mister Monday and Grim Tuesday (books one and two of The Keys to the Kingdom) are very popular here.

She will also team up with the winner of Australia's most prestigious Dromkeen Medal for her contribution to children's literature, Agnes Nieuwenhuizen, who manages the Australian Centre for Youth Literature in Melbourne, and our own Margaret Mahy.

Opening the festival on June 14 is Peter Schneck, the Austrian president of the Switzerland-based International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), administrator of the world's most prestigious prize for children's literature, the Hans Christian Andersen Award (for which Margaret Mahy has twice been nominated).

The fourth international guest is Australian television entertainer and children's book writer Andrew Daddo, who has written such bestselling works as Sprung!

The workshops are the best places for kids and adults to get the best from the internationals, Robin Houlker says.

Festival

* What: Storylines Festival

* When: From Monday June 14 to Saturday June 20

* Where: Various venues (see events box)

Info: Storylines

Storylines Festival events

Story tour - From June 14 to 18, writers, illustrators and storytellers on the road visiting selected schools.

Tanya Batt - she writes fairy books but they're not your standard ones, and her performances are sumptuously costumed

Gavin Bishop - The Giant Jimmy Jones, the world's first 3D children's book

Tessa Duder - iconic Alex, prizewinning Tiggie Thompson

Brian Falkner - the rugby league-mad author of Henry and the Flea

Tony Hopkins - Soul Food storytelling performer

Jeffy James - illustrator of over 20 books

V.M. Jones - Juggling with Mandarins, The Karazan Quartet

Simon Pollard - I Am An Insect

Bruce Potter - illustrator of more than 60 books

Moira Wairama - storyteller specialising in bilingual tellings of Maori legends, and in creating stories around local events and life experiences

Auckland Museum Scary Spider Day - Writing workshops about bugs and spiders and the chance to hear spider stories with author Simon Pollard (I Am A Spider; I Am An Insect), June 19, 10am-5pm.

Free Family Day - Includes national finals of the Paper Plus Kids Lit Quiz, June 20, 10am-3pm (The New Zealand Herald will print a full programme of the Free Family Day on Saturday, June 19).

Heritage Storylines Literature Seminar Series

Fantasy: The Crossover Genre - Auckland City Art Gallery, June 17, 6pm-8.30pm, tickets $30 from Ticketek, (09) 307 5050.

Writing and Illustrating Workshops for Children and Adults

Nine workshops on Saturday, June 19 at the Edge. Tickets $25 adults, $15 children, book at Ticketek.

Tessa Duder, How to get published (adults)

Tania Roxburgh, Guidelines for effective writing (10-14 years) Andrew Daddo, Storytelling (8-13 years)

Agnew Nieuwenhuizen, Why teenagers need stories, which books, and how to talk about books (adults)

V.M. Jones: A hands-on funshop for wordaholics (9-13 years)

Elizabeth Fuller, Drawing big brown bears (7-9 years)

Ross Kinnaird, Illustrating with humour, (8-12 years)

Andrew Daddo, Writing for kids (adults and children).