The Stroud Book Festival is just around the corner and alongside the many captivating and exciting guests, from Prue Leith and Oz Clarke, to Mary Portas and Alan Johnson, there will also be a lot on offer for younger audiences.

The 5-day festival will feature plenty of appearances from leading children’s authors, including a special primary school day exclusively for children’s activities.

Louise Brice, head of marketing for the Book Festival is excited by the range of different family events that are on this year.

She said: “We have a host of fun family events with poetry-telling, Teddy Bear-making, miniature garden-growing and needle-felting!

“We also have an entire day dedicated to local primary schools, with authors Ade Adepitan, Tony De Saulles and Caroline Lawrence.”

The aim of the children’s themed events is of course to get more kids into reading, in a fun and interesting way.

Many of the events will have an educational aspect to them, and one of these will be a special talk with two well-known illustrators on a poignant subject.

Louise continued: “We are thrilled to welcome two giants of children’s book illustration, Tony Ross and Michael Foreman, for this very special family event to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War.”

Tony Ross is best known as David Walliams’ brilliant illustrator and as the author of the Little Princess books. His latest picture book ‘An Anty-War Story’ tells the story of Douglas the soldier ant, in a powerful allegory for all ages about ordinary people faced with the prospect of world war.

Michael Foreman has been a prolific illustrator of children’s books since the 1960s. His new picture book, ‘Stubby: A True Story of Friendship’ is inspired by the incredible true story of the valiant Sergeant Stubby, the most decorated dog to serve during the First World War.

The Stroud Book Festival runs from the 7th-11th November, with the special primary school day taking place on Thursday 8th November.

You can read our previous features on the Stroud Book Festival here

For more information you can visit www.stroudbookfestival.org.uk