The 12th edition of the Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival will launch this year under the theme For Your Imagination between 19 and 29 May. The 11-day festival will be held at the Sharjah Expo Center, with more than 16 participating foreign writers and novelists, who will attend the event in person, while others will participate virtually. Notable guests who will attend the festival include New York Times best-seller Colombian writer and illustrator Claudia Reuda. American author and illustrator Matt Lamothe will also attend in person, so will his American compatriot, Ambika Anand Prokop, author of Greenfeet Guides. The award-winning I’m The Biggest Thing In The Ocean author Kevin Sherry is among the attendees as well. Also on the guest list is the best-selling Uzbek children’s book writer Dinara Mirtalipova, author of Leila in Saffron and Sleeping Beauty. Swaadi Martin, entrepreneur and activist from the Ivory Coast, will also be joined by Pakistani writer Zenobia Arslan, author of The Cosmos That Allah Has Changed at the event. New York-based Japanese manga artist Misako Rocks will share her journey as a published artist at the festival and will teach children how to develop their manga illustrations. The sessions, organized by the festival virtually, will be attended by writer Nanette Heffernan, author of the picture book Earth Hour, highlighting the importance of preserving the environment, and novelist Abby Cooper, bestselling author of the middle-grade novels Sticks and Stones, Friend or Fiction and Bubbles. Authors and illustrators participating from the UK include: Wereworld writer and designer of the BAFTA-winning Bob the Builder, Curtis Jobling, author of A Pocketful of Stars, Aisha Bushby, Katie and Kevin Tsang, writers of children and young adult novels, including Sam Wu is not Afraid. Sebastian de Souza, actor, producer, screenwriter, musician, and author of KID: A History of the Future, and Fransie Franden, writer, illustrator, and graphic designer and author of Do Grannies Have Green Fingers will be among the attendees from the UK. This year, the festival, with its 537 specialized events and activities, will open its doors to visitors from 4:00 until 10:00 pm.