Sharjah Children's Literature Fair: writer Ross Welford reminds students that "writing is rewriting"

Ross Welford's meeting with the students was one of the main attractions of the Children's Reading Festival being held in Sharjah these days.

In a dynamic and fun meeting, Welford not only explained to them how to write a book, the importance of the characters and the problems that arise, but he also had a fun interaction with them: he walked around the corridors showing himself to be very approachable, involving them in his talk, inviting them to invent characters and making them laugh by remembering some scenes from books and imitating the voices of their main characters.  

Lost and found

A projection on the screen reading "Lost and Found" led to a game he played with his young fans. "We call this method "Lost and Found". Not because we are going to copy that book, but because lost and found is the basis of many stories. Stories we know and love include lost and found," said the author of "Everything You Shouldn't Do When You're Invisible". Welford gave examples to support his statement and recalled how in "The Lord of the Rings", a classic of English literature, it all starts with the loss of the ring, and from there the adventure to find it begins. A loss that does not only have to be of objects, he explained, and for the children to understand this well, he cited "Toy Story", where it is a person who gets lost among the toys. 

He also alluded to the young apprentice magician Harry Potter by author J.K. Rowling, because the protagonist of these fantasy novels also suffers loss, "even in Harry Potter there is a story of lost and found. He has lost his mother and his father, so that is a loss," she said. And after these words, hands began to be raised in the auditorium to practice the proposed exercise. Participating children who wanted to be listened to by the one they admire so much.

The writer looked at his watch and saw that this time, unlike in his novels, time was real and was already running out. But first, he wanted to convey a message. Once again behind him, an image was projected on a screen with the phrase "Writing is rewriting" by the American Elwyn Brooks White, also a writer of children's and young people's literature, as well as an essayist, columnist and poet. With these words, Ross Welford transmitted to children the effort of the work of writing, the need to do it again and again, to correct and correct. A motto that he himself has surely put into practice many and many times and which will remain engraved in these youngsters. 

The monkey that fell from the future

And after a fun hour, which flew by, the bestselling author since his first publication, "Journey in time with a hamster" (2016) from Edelvives publishing house, with which he won multiple awards and the international projection he has, said goodbye to his audience with a short video in which he showed his latest novel: The monkey that fell from the future, which was released three months ago and which is also available in audiobook. 

In this work, the author once again goes to his wonderful world where time plays an important role, on this occasion, to the future, to the year 2425. Pages, like other of his works, where humour, science and emotions merge to live, not only his protagonists, in this case Ocean Mooney and his monkey Duke Smiff, but also the readers, interesting adventures.

Amidst applause, he said goodbye. His visit to Sharjah will remain forever in the memories of these children and teenagers who have fulfilled their dream of meeting and enjoying one of their favourite authors who has come from London to this Arab emirate.

Debate on Artificial Intelligence 

Welford also took part in another interesting meeting where, together with educator Karima Matar Almazroui and publisher Amal Farah, they discussed the link between artificial intelligence, education and children's books. Participants discussed the role of Artificial Intelligence, its advantages and disadvantages in the educational process and its incorporation into children's novels. 

What became clear was that Artificial Intelligence is already a reality that we have to live with and that the important thing is that we know how to make good use of it. In this sense, Welford expressed his wish that creativity, something natural and innate, should not be "annihilated by Artificial Intelligence".