Just as Summer brings out the ice cream (and sun cream) it also brings a fresh crop of exciting book festivals around the country. To make sure you don't miss out we thought we would create a special blog of the ones Lovereading4kids will be involved within May and June 2014.

The four key ones are:

Hoo’s Kids Book Fest, The Luton Hoo Walled Garden Sunday 11 May 2014 hoosbookfest.com

Hay Festival 22 May – 1 June 2014 Hayfestival.org

Harrogate Children’s Festival 29 May -1 June 2014  harrogateinternationalfestivals.com/family-events

Brewin Dolphin Borders Book Festival 12-15 JUNE 2014  bordersbookfestival.org

Find more details for each one below – please note this information will be updated regularly as we receive it.

Hoo’s Kids Book Fest, The Luton Hoo Walled Garden - Sunday 11 May 2014

The five acre Luton Hoo Walled Garden is nearly 250 years old and is located on the historic, family-owned Luton Hoo Estate. It was designed by the famous landscape architect Lancelot “Capability” Brown for the 3rd Earl of Bute.  On 11 May Hoo’s Kids Book Fest sees a host of great children’s authors gathering here to entertain and amuse.

Highlights include 2014 World Book Day illustrator Alex T. Smith and fantastic author Caryl Hart telling silly stories and drawing live from their joint series, Foxy Tales, which is bursting with ridiculous scrapes and slapstick humour. Come and meet bestselling author Angie Sage as she talks about the Araminta Spook series. Calling all Beast Quest fans! Help the good wizard Aduro to free the beasts from Malvel’s evil spell. Take part in a Beast Quest Tournament… Get a sneak peek of Adam Blade’s new series, Sea Quest! Christopher Lloyd will bring his giant What on Earth? Wallbook - aimed at making Big History as accessible as possible to the widest possible age range.

Join Clara Vulliamy as she reads and draws from Dixie O’Day in The Fast Lane, introduces her characters Dixie and Percy and shows the japes they get up to at the wheel of their red sports car. Clementine Beavauis author of the Sesame Seade series will be entertaining children of eight and upwards with her fantastic series about a Sleuth on Skates!  Also attending are Catherine Johnson, author of A Nest of Vipers, Piers Torday, creator of The Last Wild, Robert Muchamore, the internationally bestselling author of CHERUB, and Sophie McKenzie, author of the hugely popular Missing sequence.

Make sure that you join Gary Northfield for his comic creation workshops, where you can learn some top-secret, comic-creating tips whilst producing a comic strip of your own. Also Roald Dahl Funny Prize winner Jim Smith, creator of the hilarious Barry Loser series, unleashes how to get the last laugh in an extra ‘keel’ hour of stories, belly laughs and burps. Jim will teach you how to draw Barry and his mates. The Roald Dahl Museum crew invites you to join in with their Dirty Beasts and Revolting Rhymes storytelling sessions. This is your chance to star as a pig in Roald Dahl’s version of the The Three Little Pigs or help with Tummy Beast sound effects!

For more information visit www.hoosbookfest.com and to book tickets go to https://www.wegottickets.com/festivals/f/7273 .

Hay Festival 22 May - 1 June 2014

Hay Festival takes place in the staggering beauty of the Brecon Beacons National Park during summer half term from 22 May – 1 June. Join great writers and great thinkers from around the world and discover the new ideas driving the arts and sciences, politics and history. This year's programme explores the resonant anniversaries of the fall of the Wall and the end of the baby boom, the climax of the Crimean war and the starts of both world wars. Hay examines the history that has made Britain; a history of trade and conflict, of technical innovation and progressive daring. Explore the world through the international fiction of Toni Morrison, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Cees Nooteboom, Javier Cercas, Gong Ji-Young, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Carlos Acosta, Tim Winton, Siri Hustvedt and Lorrie Moore. Mervyn King, Ha-Joon Chang and Craig Calhoun debate the global economy; David Reynolds, Margaret Macmillan, Sebastian Faulks, Louisa Young, Niall Ferguson, Jeremy Paxman, Helen Dunmore and Sebastian Barry weave accounts of the Great War in fact and fiction; Nobel Prizewinners John Gurdon and Tim Hunt and the Podfather, Tony Fadell head a series of investigations into the latest developments in science and technology; the 450th birthday of William Shakespeare is celebrated with a series of conversations about his work with Toni Morrison, Jerry Brotton, Stephen Fry, Judi Dench and Richard Eyre. And it being Hay, there is great food from Sam & Sam Clark, Mary Berry and Antonio Carluccio; great laughter with Jennifer Saunders, Al Murray, Frank Skinner and Bill Bailey, and great music with Cerys Matthews, Toumani Diabate and Hugh Masekela.

Hay has a jam-packed programme for families and children for the full ten days of the summer half term with great writers for all ages. Meet the inventors of favourite characters including super-star authors Julia Donaldson (it’s the Gruffalo's 15th birthday this summer), Oliver Jeffers,  Korky Paul, Ed Vere and Jez Alborough. Jacqueline Wilson (with anthology Paws & Whiskers), Francesca Simon (Horrid Henry is 20 this year!), Cressida Cowell (with her new tome The Incomplete Book of Dragons), Lauren Child (on illustration and Clarice Bean), Henry Winkler with his My Way! tour, Michelle Paver, Liz Pichon (creator of Tom Gates), Jeremy Strong, Cathy Cassidy, and Chris Riddell and Paul Stewart who have a new Edge Chronicles book out. For older fiction lovers Charlie Higson, Cassandra Clare and Meg Rosoff, Michael Morpurgo, Anthony Horowitz, and Darren Shan. The festival is packed withworkshops for families and children of all ages, from theatre with the Royal Shakespeare Company to music-making with Cool Fossil Music, from muddy walks with Wild Wye Web to tweeting verse with the RSPB.

Please visit www.Hayfestival.org for more information.

To book tickets go to: https://www.hayfestival.com/wales/index.aspx?skinid=2&currencysetting=GBP&localesetting=en-GB&resetfilters=true

Harrogate Children’s Festival - 29 May .. 1 June 2014

History, Science and Art will come alive in the 2014 Harrogate Children’s Festival featuring the UK’s finest entertainers and authors. Ignite your child’s big imagination with a series of captivating shows, as the Festival introduces the magical world of the Spiegeltent – Europe’s oldest travelling tent – for unforgettable mini-adventures. Enter the mirrored walls to discover book treats ranging from Charles Dickens to Dennis the Menace, and the Wimpy Kid to Winnie the Pooh.

Join Steven Butler, author of Diary of Dennis the Menace, for a sneaky peak into the chaotic life of the naughtiest boy in the Beano! Expect lots of fun and games (maybe even a prank or two!) as Steven brings to life the world Dennis of Menace.

The Take Away Theatre Company will be turning back the years at this year’s Festival.  ‘A Dash Through Dickens’ is a frantic, irreverent and hilarious jaunt through the life and works of Charles Dickens.  Audiences will see the likes of Ebenezer Scrooge, Mr Pickwick and Nancy from Oliver as they have never seen them before…or ever will again.  As well as a fascinating insight into Dickens and his books, audiences will experience (and sometimes be disgusted by) what it was REALLY like to live in Victorian Britain!

Bookworm Babies are invited to join Seven Stories for imaginative, exploratory play with books for babies!  Discover the best books for your baby in this fabulous session for the very small. Interactive songs and playing with sensory material is all part of the fun as we share stories that little ones will love and encourage early childhood development.

A must for all Diary of a Wimpy Kid fans and great family entertainment. Host Alastair Watson brings the books to life with fun activities including The Wimpy Kid Draw-Along and The Wimp Wars! Quiz. The event also includes exclusive clips of author Jeff Kinney talking about the books, his involvement in the films and showing how he draws the characters.

For more information visit www.harrogateinternationalfestivals.com/family-events/.

Brewin Dolphin Borders Book Festival 12-15 JUNE 2014

As part of Homecoming Scotland 2014 some of the world’s best writers, communicators and entertainers will be appearing in Melrose from 12-15 June, including household names such as Jennifer Saunders, Paddy Ashdown and Steve Backshall.

The festival looks simultaneously to the past and to the future, with speakers on great historical events as well as on the future of Scotland.  Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown will talk about his vision of Scottishness, Britishness, and the unique nature of the Union; and a passionate debate will be held on Scottish independence with two veteran parliamentarians.  Commemorating the First World War centenary, Allan Little will talk about the spark that ignited it, Katie Adie recalls the women of the home front, and Dave Anderson, playing Sir Harry Lauder, will Keep Right On to the End of the Road!

The festival opens with a magnificent line-up of Paddy Ashdown, Steve Backshall, Kate Adie, Jennifer Saunders and Lynda La Plante on Thursday 12 June.  On Friday 13 June, the winner of the fifth £25,000 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction will be announced, with at least three of the shortlisted six authors in attendance to hear the result and taking part in a separate panel discussion on historical fiction.  On Sunday 15, another anniversary is celebrated – the publication of Sir Walter Scott’s great, innovative novel, Waverley – created just a mile or so from Melrose.  A dramatized adaptation written specially for the festival by Alan Caig Wilson will star Phyllida Law, John Sessions and David Robb.

Elsewhere in the programme, younger audiences will be entertained by the wildly popular television presenter Steve Backshall, who comes to Borders for the first time with his new fiction series for children.  Another popular broadcaster, Simon Mayo, will be regaling older children with his stories featuring 14-year-old science nut Itchingham Lofte.  Other children’s writers include Andy Stanton (Mr Gum), Simon Chapman, Lauren St John, Ross Collins, and Lari Don.

For further information visit  https://www.bordersbookfestival.org/  and to book tickets see https://www.bbfboxoffice.co.uk/.