Books for children and young adults are in demand like never before, and so are their authors. Between March 10th and 13th, international children’s favourites such as Jacqueline Wilson, Tony Ross, Ian Whybrow, Korky Paul, Caroline Lawrence, Garth Nix and Darren Shan may be spotted around the festival grounds, giving talks and demonstrations of their craft. They will be joining children’s writers from the Arab world, like Taghreed Najjar and Fatima Sharaffeddine, and locally based writers of English stories such as Julia Johnson.

There will also be writing and storytelling workshops specially run for younger festival-goers, and of course the announcement of the winners of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature Story Writing Competition.