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Age guideline 7-11, 11-13
About the event
Author of Costa Book Award-winning Asha & the Spirit Bird Jasbinder Bilan and bestselling author of The Girl of Ink & Stars Kiran Millwood Hargrave are celebrated for their ability to combine poetic prose with page-turning storytelling that plunges the reader into the adventure full gusto. Both write with a vivid sense of place, drawing on their respective heritages and experiences. They chat about why reading and storytelling is magical, how they weave this magic into their own books, and the magic they found in the stories they read as children.
Teacher resources and further reading
Resources for Kiran Millwood-Hargrave’s books: https://www.chickenhousebooks.com/schools/kiran-millwood-hargrave-author/
Resources for Jasbinder Bilan’s books: https://www.chickenhousebooks.com/schools/jasbinder-bilan-author/
Buy the Books here:
About the authors
Kiran Millwood Hargrave was born in Surrey in 1990. Her bestselling debut The Girl of Ink & Stars, about a mapmaker’s daughter who must save her island, won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2017 and the British Book Awards Children’s Book of the Year. Her second standalone story, The Island at the End of Everything, was shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Award and the Costa Children’s Book Award, and longlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal. Her third book, The Way Past Winter, was the Blackwell’s Children’s Book of the Year 2018. Her first book for adults, The Mercies, was subject to a 13-way auction and was a Sunday Times bestseller. Kiran lives in Oxford.
Twitter: @Kiran_MH
Instagram: @Kiran_MH
According to family stories, Jasbinder Bilan was born in a stable in the foothills of the Himalayas. Until she was a year and a half, she lived on a farm in India inhabited by a grumpy camel and a monkey called Oma. Her debut novel, ASHA & THE SPIRIT BIRD was inspired by her strong and special relationship with her grandmother, and won both the Costa Children’s Book Award and the Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition. She lives in Somerset with her husband, two teenage boys and dog Enzo, and splits her time between teaching and writing.
Twitter: @JasInBath
Instagram: @JasbinderBilan
About the festival partner
This event has been programmed by Bath Children’s Literature Festival.
Bath Festivals is a charity that brings you the Bath Children’s Literature Festival, Europe’s largest dedicated children’s literature festival with a vibrant array of talks and activities for children. They are also responsible for The Bath Festival in the summer which bring the city alive with a celebration of music and books in the beautiful venues and spaces of the world heritage city. By creating innovative and diverse programmes, their festivals inspire and provide unique experiences for residents and visitors to Bath and surrounding areas. Their year-round creative learning programme of hands-on music and literature projects gives children and young people opportunities to gain real-world experience, building their inner confidence and improving communication skills through the arts.