Roddy Doyle to attend kids’ books festival

THE acclaimed author of The Commitments, The Snapper and Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, Roddy Doyle, is coming to Londonderry to take part in the ‘Humdinger! Children’s Book Festival’ from Thursday to Saturday, March 7-9, 2013.
By The Newsroom
Published 1st Feb 2013, 12:43 BST

Humdinger! is designed to celebrate words, stories and imagination and features some of the biggest and best-loved names in children’s books, including: Julia Donaldson, Roddy Doyle, Meg Rosoff, Alex T. Smith and Malachy Doyle.

The festival is local children’s literature publisher Dog Ears’ first large-scale children’s book festival and kicks-off on World Book Day March 7.

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Culture Company Chief Executive, Shona McCarthy said: “The ‘Humdinger! Children’s Book Festival’, supported by Tesco is a fantastic initiative.

“A key aim of the whole UK City of Culture project is to create a legacy for the youth of Derry-Londonderry and I can think of no better legacy to bequeath to children in the city than an interest in reading.

“It’s great to have writers of the calibre of Julia Donaldson and Roddy Doyle participating in the festival and having already experienced the excellent work that Dog Ears does in the city I have no doubt that this will be an outstanding event.”

Liz Canning of Booktrust said: “Booktrust is delighted to be working alongside Dog Ears and other key partners on the inaugural Derry Children’s Book Festival, Humdinger!

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“We are proud to be associated with such an exciting range of literary events which is sure to inspire a love of stories, rhymes and books for children and families in the UK City of Culture 2013.”

Fionnuala Deane, Managing Director of Dog Ears said: “The success of our Julia Donaldson event in 2012 proved that there is a huge appetite in Derry/Londonderry for children’s events that celebrate books.

“We’re committed to bringing the best writers and illustrators to meet local children and we wanted to do something amazing for UK City of Culture 2013.

“We’re proud to present our programme for Humdinger! and delighted to work with such great partners to deliver events that will fill the city with bookworms.”