This event has moved to our collection of Past Event Videos where you can access all past festival events for a small one-off fee of £5. Please click here to sign up or log in if you are already a member.
Age guideline 13+
About the event
Who chooses what we read? Why do some books get published and others don’t? Why do books get banned? Who decides if a book is suitable for us to read? Should young people have more power over what they read? Join Lucas Maxwell (previous winner of School Librarian of the Year) as he asks students from Glenthorne High School these important questions.They’ll be posing their own questions to Laureate na nÓg / Irish Children’s Laureate Áine ni Ghlinn who has written over 30 books for children and young people and Bangladeshi-Irish author Adiba Jaigirdar, whose latest book Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating is a heartwarming queer YA love story.
Buy the Book here: Daideo - Áine Ní Ghlinn
Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating - Adiba Jaigirdar
How to access the event
From 1 January 2022, this event will move to our collection of Past Event Videos where you can access all past festival events for a small one-off fee of £5. Go to the top of the page to view Past Event Videos. Please click here to sign up or log in if you are already a member.
Teacher Resources
In this event students from Glenthorne High School discuss ideas around choice, banned books, and who should make decisions about what children and young people read. They also designed their own questions to pose to the authors in the event: Adiba Jaigirdar and Aine Ni Ghlinn.
Use some of the questions posed to have a class discussion around the topic.You can share your class’s views and ideas on #ReadingIsMagicFest on social media if you would like to join a bigger conversation.
Use some of the questions or ideas discussed to frame a persuasive text, a debate or letter to the Headteacher about young people’s rights to choose what they read.
Adiba Jaigirdar discusses the importance of recognising the intersectionality of writers. She is Irish, Muslim and Queer all of which she explores within her writing. For her, growing up, meant reading books where she saw no representation of herself. Further resources to explore Adiba’s experiences are here:
https://browngirlmagazine.com/2020/06/author-interview-adiba-jaigirdar-of-the-henna-wars/
Aine Ni Ghlinn is Ireland’s Children’s Laureate. Her stated ambition as Laureate na nÓg is to lift the cloak of invisibility from Irish language writing for children.
But what does that mean for her as writer? And why it is important for her creative process to have parity of esteem with artists who write in English? Here is her lecture exploring these issues:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m_Ei3HAYV4
A further class discussion topic can explore the relationship between language and identity. How language through culture defines our beliefs and values and what this means for an inclusive and diverse society.
2019 was the United Nations Year of Indigenous Languages. For further resources and research on minority languages and the importance of protection and survival explore here:
About the Students, Librarian and Author
Glenthorne High School students are a mixture of student library assistants and library regulars who take part in and run school programmes such as Book Club, Dungeons and Dragons Club, Library Podcast and much more.
Lucas Maxwell has been the Librarian at Glenthorne High School for eight years. Previously, he worked with teens at risk in the public library system in Canada.
Adiba Jaigirdar was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and has been living in Dublin, Ireland since the age of ten. She has a BA in English and History, and an MA in Postcolonial Studies. She is a contributor for Bookriot, and an ESL teacher. All of her writing is aided by tea, and a healthy dose of Janelle Monáe and Hayley Kiyoko.
When not writing, she can be found ranting about the ills of colonialism, playing video games, and expanding her overflowing lipstick collection.
Áine Ní Ghlinn is a children’s writer and poet. She has written over thirty books, including poetry collections and an array of books and novels for children and teenagers. Her ambition as Laureate is to lift the cloak of invisibility from Irish language authors and books, and to encourage children and young people to read for pleasure as Gaeilge. Áine was announced as the sixth Laureate na nÓg on 13th May 2020 and will hold the title until 2023.
Áine Ní Ghlinn Laureate na nÓg (2020-2023) Annual Lecture: Lifting The Invisibility Cloak. - YouTube
Twitter: @lucasjmaxwell | @adiba_j
Instagram: Adiba @dibs_j
Website: www.adibajaigirdar.com
About the festival partner
This event has been programmed by Laureate na nÓg and Bath Children’s Literature Festival.
Laureate na nÓg was established in 2010. Siobhán Parkinson was awarded the honour of being Ireland’s first Laureate na nÓg. Since that time there have been four other laureates - Niamh Sharkey, Eoin Colfer, PJ Lynch and Sarah Crossan, who concluded her term in late April. Each has contributed in their own ways to the aims of the programme, and the Laureate is recognised as the highest honour that can be awarded to a children’s writer or illustrator in Ireland. The sixth Laureate na nÓg, Áine Ní Ghlinn, was announced in May. Her programme of work is currently underway.
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.