9:00 am – 3:00 pm
For schools by Invitation – The Neev Literature Festival will feature what will likely be the largest exhibition of children’s books ever seen in the city. This exhibition is carefully curated to expose children to new authors, titles and genres, and to complement scheduled workshops, panel discussions, and author talks. Children and parents will find enriching and challenging resources for children of all ages from pre-schoolers to pre-university students.
Booksellers and publishers will bring significant and renowned titles to offer the most balanced representation of books across genres, languages, themes and reading levels. The exhibition will feature reading spaces and activity spaces to engage and motivate its prime audience — children – into sampling and eventually reading beyond the usually well-marketed though not always enriching literature.
10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Open to public event – The main day of the festival will bring children’s literature into active discourse in a forum meant exclusively for the experience of its range, depth, problems, and new directions.
The highlights of the day include:
A discussion on Why read? will present diverse perspectives from the fields of writing, education, and psychology.
A panel discussion on Developing Characters with Character will feature a range of perspectives on the challenges and rewards of creating layered and relatable characters in children’s literature;
A panel discussion on Should we fear the Dark? will explore dark themes in children’s literature;
Trends vs Traditions – Writing for India’s children will present experts discussing current trends in storytelling and the state of writing for children in India in English and in regional languages;
How games make kids smarter is a conversation on impact of the digital world/gaming on learning and Grow to read, read to grow will focus on how best to raise strong readers;
Interspersed between these panel discussions will be author talks similar in format to TED talks on subjects on all our minds.