A few of our members will be helping out at Canterbury’s FIRST EVER Children’s Literature Festival this weekend. Today, one of our members joined other volunteers to help out during author, performer and composer Gareth P Jones’ interactive “Fairy Tale Musical Mash up” for primary school youngsters – centred on the story of long-eared bunny rabbit,”Rabunzel”! 
Getting children engaged with books from an early age is a great thing to do – which is why we were very pleased to support Bex and Rhys Hughes, organisers of the Festival, the first of its kind in Canterbury. The city has rich literary links – Aphra Behn, Christopher Marlowe, and Geoffrey Chaucer, to name a few – as well as a special connection to children’s storytelling through Smallfilms, the stop-motion animation studio based in nearby Blean that brought characters such as Bagpuss to life.
As well as some financial support for the Festival, we also offered to volunteer over the weekend. Today, Rotarian Julie Reza was delighted to join Rhys and a team of other volunteers at Canterbury’s Shirley Hall (King’s School) for a fun event for local primary schools, led by picture book author and performer Gareth P. Jones.
Gareth entertained an audience of around 200 youngsters and their teachers from St Peter’s, Wickhambreaux, and St Thomas’ schools with a musical based on “Rabunzel” – a long-eared bunny rabbit that stars in one of his popular books. He had the children miaowing, quacking, and pretend-nibbling throughout the show – and, of course, everyone joined in to shout “Rabunzel, let down your ears!” There were plenty of opportunities for the youngsters to get involved, and they certainly seemed to enjoy it. “I really liked it,” said one audience member with a broad smile as the show ended.
There’s still lots more going on over the weekend – head to the Festival’s website to see the full programme.
Facebook: Canterbury Children’s Literature Festival
Picture: The volunteers pose with Rhys (second from the left) for a quick pic before the show kicks off. Picture credit: Rotary Club of Canterbury.
You can see some more pictures in our Facebook album, here.
