Sharjah kids reading fest to host workshops

Imran Mojib, Special Correspondent

The 11th edition of Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival (SCRF 2019) is right around the corner, and staying true to tradition, is bringing a diverse offering of interactive workshops to advance children’s knowledge and expand their creative horizons.

The 11-day cultural extravaganza for children and young adults, organised by Sharjah Book Authority (SBA), will be held from April 17–27, under the theme ‘Discover Knowledge.’

On offer will be a series of workshops at the SCRF 2019 STEAM laboratory featuring fun-filled science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics experiments. Those interested in exploring solar energy, music, video game design and life skills will have the opportunity to do so at workshops dedicated to each of these themes.

At ‘History of Comics’, Shihab Al Deen Almusharaf will be teaching story writing and character building, with a focus on Japanese Manga. Another workshop titled, ‘A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words’ will immerse participants in the fascinating world of visual storytelling, helping them understand the universal language of images.

A superhero-inspired workshop, ‘Create the Hero of Your story’, will introduce participants to methods of ideating, creating and designing superheroes and other mythical characters to feature in comic books. The ‘Designs and Templates’ workshop will show aspiring writers and artistes the art of comic book template-making and character design.

The ‘Superhero’ workshop will teach children how to design superheroes and give them distinctive features through the use of simple lines and attractive colors. While ‘Story Heroes’ workshop will have participants develop amazing characters based on comic and manga events.

Meanwhile, the ‘Expression’ workshop aims to add expressions and emotions to characters, such as joy, anger and sadness, making them more real and lively.

Younglings taking part in the ‘Super Villain’ workshop will have the opportunity to create and draw super villain, and choose their superpowers and gadgets. Meanwhile, the ‘Comic Pages’ workshop will teach children how to work together to create a page for a comic book and design templates that contribute to the story.

Writing stories will be a breeze for children once they take part in an inspiring and technical workshop during SCRF. The ‘Let’s write a Story’ will teach participants the basics of writing an attractive and expressive story, while the fast-paced ‘Words and Pictures’ workshop will look at how both of them can interact together to tell a story.

Participants in ‘The Missing Story’ workshop will have to complete comic scenes of an unfinished, yet, simple story then invent the remaining events and use the correct drawings.

The ‘Expression’ workshop will teach participants how to add expressions and emotions to characters, such as joy, anger and sadness, making them more real and lively.

Design and illustration is also a part of the extensive creative workshops during SCRF. The ‘Amazing Covers’ workshop is available to teach participants how to design and create compelling and attractive covers for comic books, while the ‘Story world’ workshop seeks unleash the creativity of children in designing distinctive and lively comic characters.

SCRF is one of the most important cultural events dedicated to children in the UAE and greater region.

 It has gone beyond being a book exhibition and developed into an integrated event that contributes to enriching the knowledge of visitors with science and literature, and garners the participation of organisations and centres dedicated to children.

A record number of 33 authors and literati from 18 countries will participate in SCRF 2019.

The stellar line-up features Elisabetta Dami, international best-selling children’s author from Italy, whose adventure stories featuring Geronimo Stilton - the mouse, have been translated into more than 40 languages and sold over 180 million copies worldwide.