Launch of Chronicles of Coryn Book Festival a success

Scores of families and children turned out for the inaugural Chronicles of Coryn Children's Book Festival, held at Sound Forge, on October 1.

The atmosphere was busy, with children of all ages present – from babes in arms to teenagers. People lined up to enjoy the bouncy castle, get their faces painted, play football and Scrabble, indulge in cotton candy and snow cones, get food from food carts, and buy books and crafts from the vendors present.

Some sat in an area close to the front of the stage on cushions to watch performances and interact with the performers, including Coryn herself.

Port of Spain deputy mayor Abena Hartley said the event was a special one. She presented Coryn with the Coryn Ayanna Clarke award “for inspiring the children of TT to read and go after all of their dreams.”

“I met Coryn about two weeks ago, and the mayor and I were so happy for her to come and visit us at City Hall, because we thought 'wow, look at this young brilliant mind that has written seven whole books,' and it’s always a good inspiration for us all to always use our imagination and never think we need to put any limits on ourselves.

“We are very proud of you and we encourage you to continue to create these types of events for our children so that we can all step out of our minds and into our imaginations. In the city we will continue to create spaces for children that are child-friendly, because in our society, if we don’t create such spaces, we see the end results."

She thanked parents for bringing their children out to support Coryn.

“This is a true testament of, if you pour into your child, what can come out and the sky’s the limit.

“So I want every parent here today to be inspired. If tomorrow they bring up the most unimaginable thing, I want you to say, 'let’s try it out,' because Coryn has shown us that in seven years, seven books is possible,” Hartley said.

Port of Spain mayor Chinua Alleyne said he is always happy to support any education-centric activity.

“I had the opportunity to meet Coryn when she did a courtesy call at my office. She’s a brilliant, amazing, bright young lady, I think she has an amazing future and anything I can do to support that, I’m happy to do that.

“The turnout is amazing. I’m aware there’s a lot of interest for us to do this event in other places, and I don’t think anybody could be disappointed in what we’re seeing here, in terms of the families that have come out, all of the young people who have come out, all of the children. I think this is something that could only grow,” Alleyne said.

Coryn presented the Chronicles of Coryn and Jonesy’s Literacy Foundation Literary Hero awards to Paper Based Bookshop owner Joan Dayal, authors Alake Pilgrim and Mary Cuffy, and the illustrator of Coryn’s seven books, Tiffany Nicholas.

Among the books on display were the seven books authored by Coryn, including Chronicles of Coryn: Adventures in St Kitts and Nevis, Chronicles of Coryn: 7 Days of Fun, Chronicles of Coryn: Meet My Heroes; Chronicles of Coryn: Traditional Carnival Characters of Trinidad and Tobago and the accompanying colouring and activity book; Chronicles of Coryn: In Memory of My Grandmother - A Tribute to Jonesy; and Chronicles of Coryn: Gratitude Journal and Activity Book. She told Sunday Newsday she is already working on four more.

Authors Simon Phillip, who writes the Petra series, and Alake Pilgrim, author of Zo and the Forest of Secrets read excerpts from their books.

There was a presentation on the history of calypso music by Viviekanand Singh and Osei Blake of the Necessary Arts School, and performances by calypsonians Zachary Ransome and College Boy Jesse, among others.