A children’s literary festival is the latest event in Suffolk to be cancelled due to the coronavirus with organisers instead hosting an online festival.
The Lavenham Children’s Book Festival was first held in 2017 but this year organisers have created an online festival website so that children all over the country can join in the fun.
Going ‘live’ from July 20, Bookworms’ Bonanza! will be available 24 hours a day for children aged between three and 12.
During the event, Michael Morpurgo will be reading from his book ‘The Butterfly Lion’ and will be talking to fellow author Claire Mulley about the inspiration for his stories.
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Zeb Soanes, the BBC broadcaster, will be joining illustrator James Mayhew to read about the latest adventures of Gaspard the Fox, about a real urban fox that visits the author in North London.
Mr Soanes, who was born and raised in Lowestoft, has enjoyed an illustrious career in radio and in December 2010, Radio Times magazine placed him in the list of the seven most recognisable voices in Britain.
Mr Mayhew, from Blundeston in Suffolk, attended Lowestoft School of Art in 1982 and has since carved out a very successful career in illustration.
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In 1994, he won The New York Times Award for one of the 10 best illustrated books of the year for The Boy and the Cloth of Dreams, written by Jenny Koralek.
Susan Burton, chairman of the Lavenham Children’s Book Festival, said: “We were very disappointed at having to cancel the children’s book festival because of the coronavirus.
“However, undaunted, instead of our local Lavenham festival we decided to go global. We’re very excited to be launching Bookworms’ Bonanza, an online book festival which will be accessible free to children everywhere for the summer holidays and beyond.”
Mr Soanes said: “The 2018 Lavenham children’s book festival was the most enjoyable and best organised festival that James Mayhew and I have attended, and we’re delighted this year to be part of Lavenham’s Bookworms’ Bonanza online.”
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