LAHORE, Oct 28: The seventh two-day Children’s Literature Festival will start on Wednesday (tomorrow) at the Children’s Library Complex after a break of two years and is expected to attract a large number of visitors.

Organised by the Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) in collaboration with the Oxford University Press (OUP) and the Open Society Foundations (OSF), the festival expects participation by about 25,000 children from Lahore.

The CLF aims to promote the culture of reading among children as well as to enhance their capability to think creatively and critically. The CLF also hopes to bring together children from different backgrounds and languages on a common platform where they can learn, communicate, interact and participate in fun activities without any biases.

Exciting activities such as theatre, digital workshops, activities to develop learning and reading materials, animation, creative writing, illustration, plenary sessions, children’s films, puppet shows, story reading, sing along sessions, book launches and book fairs will be included in the event. There will also be trademark children’s poetry and narrative sessions titled “Bol Kay Lab Azad Hain Teray” (Speak, for you are Free).

There will also be prized awards for the “Story Writing and Poetry Writing Competition” and the “Drawing and Painting Competition” for which the CLF received more than 2,000 entries last time. Child authors aged 8, 10 and 11 will be running sessions on creative writing, reading etc.

The Lahore CLF 2013 will also host performers, teachers and storytellers from across the border to provide an enriching cultural experience for the children and to encourage the exchange of ideas regarding children’s literature and the art of storytelling.

Theatre groups for children, “Gripps and Thespianz” will be present. Zambeel Dramatic Readings group (Karachi), a dynamic group rendering Urdu and English texts in a dramatised form is also participating in the event, bringing an endearing tale of Naiyer Masud to life. Several workshops are planned throughout the two days for children and educators to learn about the contemporary form of radio plays, dramatic expression in storytelling, the art of debating, illustrations and book writing.

“Our aim in holding CLFs is to promote a love of reading and learning among children so they become critical thinkers, ask questions, learn to access information from books and other sources, process that information, and form their own opinions,” said Ameena Saiyid of the OUP.

The founders and organisers of Children’s Literature Festival are Baela Raza Jamil, the Director Programs for Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA), and Ameena Saiyid, Managing Director of Oxford University Press.

Some of the country’s most eminent authors, poets, institutions are working in collaboration with CLF such as Zehra Nigah, Arfa Syeda Zehra, Rumana Husain, Kishwar Naheed, Amjad Islam Amjad, Hamida Khuhro, Zubeida Mustafa, Dr. Shahid Siddiqui, Khaled Anum, Habib Bank Limited, Alif Ailaan, Citizens Archive of Pakistan (CAP), The Little Art, Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC), Punjabi Institute of Language, Art and Culture, Sindh Education Foundation, Alif Laila Book Bus Society, Goethe Institute, Fiver River Technologies, Gripps Theatre, National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), Al Baraka Banking Group, Democratic Commission for Human Development (DCHD), Dawn Media Group and others.

“CLF is a journey that began in November 2011 but has gathered an unprecedented momentum,” said Baela Raza Jamil, from the ITA. “It has blossomed into a movement for learning and healing across the country through an indigenous template designed by our amazing authors, poets, educationists, actors and artists for the love of all children, passionate about promoting reading for pleasure, imagination and new genres of caring citizenship.”

The CLF will also feature Indian authors Ankit Chadha and Chintan Girish Modi and Katha Books will be setting up their books.