The owners of the Chicken and Frog Bookshop in Brentwood, Essex are launching an annual literary festival for children (and their grown-ups). The first festival will take place 22–30 July 2016, and with 17 separate events to choose from, you’ll be hard pressed to narrow it down to just one! But with ticket costs heavily subsidized by the charity, the price of just £3 per event means that you can meet a favourite author or two or three, without breaking the bank.   The Brentwood Children’s Literary Festival has children very much in mind, with a cross section of authors and illustrators to suit ages from pre-school to teen. This is far more than a meet and greet festival, although you’ll get the chance to say hello and ask your chosen authors to sign books (available to purchase) on the day. Choose from Abi Elphinstone, AF Harrold, Giles Paley-Philips, Laura Dockrill, Nikki Sheehan and Sara Grant. Both Sara Grant and J.D.Irwin are going to be running writing workshops, David O’Connell will be leading a writing and illustration workshop and you can rest assured that all of the authors and illustrators will be on hand to answer your questions about their books and what it’s really like to create one. Highlights include: the absolute legend behind Harry and his Bucketful of Dinosaurs, Ian Whybrow, will be appear on Friday 29th July. A lot of people who write books have nasty, dangerous, horrible things happen to them when they’re young. In that sense, Ian missed out. In 1989, while he was running an English Department he began to think seriously about writing something for children. Then he started running a Sixth Form. Several years later he decided to re-invent himself as an author and aren’t we glad that he did! Harry is famous the world over and a firm favourite for young children (and teachers, too). You are sure to learn how to roar like a dinosaur during the afternoon, so bring along your fiercest voices! Undeniable ‘Queen of Tween’, Karen McCombie, is performing on Monday 25th July. The best-selling author loves writing, crisps, nattering and cats, in no particular order. With more than 80 books published and translated around the world, Karen is a busy, busy author, but never too busy to think of new ideas and appear at lovely events like the Brentwood Children’s Literary Festival. Karen will be talking about the inspiration behind brand new time-slip mystery ‘The Whispers of Wilderwood Hall’, as well as her evacuee novel ‘Catching Falling Stars’, which is set here in Essex. Award winning author Nikki Sheehan is the youngest daughter of a rocket scientist. After a degree in linguistics her first job was subtitling The Simpsons, followed by a career in journalism. Her first novel, Who Framed Klaris Cliff? won the North Herts Book Award for 2015. Nikki is also a story mentor for Little Green Pig (part of the Ministry of Stories) taking story writing into schools in Brighton where she lives with her family and too many pets. You can meet Nikki on Wednesday 27th July. For full details of what’s on offer, visit the website www.brentwoodlitfest.com where you can order your tickets at the click of a button or call 01277 230068