October is Children’s Book Festival month in Ireland, and it’s always great fun. Buses and trains and taxis are packed full of lost-looking authors, libraries throw open their doors to welcome eager classes of readers and writers, and so many stories are created over the course of the Festival that it’s a wonder the island can contain them all.
And this year for the first time I got to take part in #CBF18 as a fully-fledged author. It was the best.
The front door of Tallaght Library in South Dublin. Image credit: SJ O’Hart
I was lucky enough to be invited to lead workshops in Wexford, Tallaght, Clondalkin, Lucan and Ballyroan Libraries, and I had the great joy of meeting children from third to fifth class in every session who were bubbling with stories and enthusiasm for reading. Most of my sessions featured my Dogsled Adventure workshop, which brought us on some incredible ice-bound adventures – and some completely out-of-the-box tales, too!
Getting ready to set off at Clondalkin Library! Image credit: SJ O’Hart
We had stories about sleds pulled by unicorns, cats, and dragons; we heard about hover-sleds in stories that took place on the moon. We had sleds pulled by slavering man-eating wolves (eeek!) and we had sleds pulled by intelligent, clever dogs who come to the rescue when a baby bear gets stuck in the middle of a frozen lake. We had sled-dogs named Despacito and X-Box (among many hundreds of others), and more than anything else we had loads of fun. One of my Wexford workshops was entitled ‘Mythical Monsters and Heroic Tales’, where we met terrors like Rat-Man and the Tree Monster, and mythical beasts made of darkness and wasps. In every workshop, I had a forest of hands in the air when it came time to read our work out loud; there was never any shortage of volunteers, and that – for me – was the best part. There’s nothing I love more when doing school and library events than getting the privilege of listening to the stories created during my workshops; it’s such an incredible feeling of joy to know that imaginations have been fired by something I’ve said or a question I’ve asked, and that a storyfinding expedition has taken place right under my very nose.
So, I want to take this opportunity to thank the librarians and staff of South Dublin County Council and Wexford County Council for letting me loose, and of course to send a giant ‘Whoop!’ to all the children I met over the course of my busy, country-crossing week, who showed me once again how there’s nothing quite as good as storyfinding, and who let me be part of the magic of their creativity. It was a privilege to be among you. Thank you all – and remember: Always Be Curious, and Never Stop Adventurin’!
And while I’m here…
You might have missed the announcement about my forthcoming second book, so I’ll take this opportunity to mention it. My second book, The Star-Spun Web, is being published in February by Stripes Books, and you can find out more about it here. It’s a story set in two versions of Dublin, a story about family found and made and the things we do to protect the people we love when the chips are down. It’s a story about a girl and her pet tarantula, a boy and his pet mouse, and the secrets of the universe.
And I hope you’ll enjoy it.
Keep your eyes peeled for a cover reveal soon!
SJ O'Hart 