Storylines Festival Family Days

The Storylines Festival Family Days are a breeding ground for this generation's Margaret Mahy or Joy Cowley, or indeed for the next Eleanor Catton! But more than that, they are the place where our children and their families and our authors, illustrators and storytellers share the magic of our stories, right here and now.

The project is six free Family Days from 23-31 August 2014 in Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, Whangarei, South Auckland and Auckland as part of the Storylines Festival, designed to:

- celebrate NZ children's literature with children and their families across socio-economic boundaries

- spark children's imaginations and offer them the chance to meet emerging and established New Zealand authors and illustrators in the flesh

- showcase NZ children's authors and illustrators' work, along with that of New Zealand guests who join us (this year, wonderfully, we have Australian Children's Laureate Jackie French and Gary Crew!)

- nurture the authors and illustrators of tomorrow, giving them the opportunity to tell their own tales, draw their own dreams

- provide authors and illustrators with the opportunity to share their craft, develop new collaborations

- open up opportunities to increase sales of NZ literature.

The Storylines Festival has been running for 21 years, expanding in recent years to include Dunedin and South Auckland amongst its Family Days. More than a hundred-thousand children and their families have attended these days in previous years, and this is the feedback they give: 

"Absolutely fantastic, can't wait for the next one." (Alaina, Papakura)

 "I liked the Competition Zone because it was cool." (child Jeremy)

"My son is really interested to meet the authors because he also tried to write story." (Raj, Papatoetoe)

"Meeting the illustrators and writers of books that my kids have read was overwhelming for them. Seeing the illustrators draw was amazing." (parent Ng Lee, Riccarton)

"Four generations volunteering at Storylines Festival Auckland Family Day..." (volunteer coordinator Anne Coppell)

"Great for kids to learn about books behind the scenes" (parent, Clevedon)

"The best thing about the Family Day was seeing people enjoy reading" (Jackie, Wattle Downs)

Storylines' part-time staff amount to less than one whole person whose job is to seek support in the form of grants and sponsorship and coordinate with venues, printers, participating authors and illustratrors, media etc - the rest is entirely down to an incredibly committed group of volunteers.

And, of course, you - please join us and New Zealand's children for the journey and boost our Storylines Festival Family Days to keep our stories going and our children imagining up altogether new ones.

Storylines Website

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