THE St Austell Festival of Children’s Literature is back for its second season later this week.

The big event will run in the town from Friday, June 28, to Sunday, June 30, at a number of venues and is taking place just days after its director, Simon Pollard, was declared a community reading champion in the Harper Collins Reading for Pleasure Teacher Awards for his work on the first festival last year.

Here, as excitement builds, Simon, the head teacher of Carclaze Primary School, gives his answers to a series of questions I posed.

Having worked in schools for almost 30 years, I have firsthand experience of the importance of children choosing to read. There has been so much research from the Open University, the National Literacy Trust and the Book Trust that underlines the importance of choosing to read but it also highlights the fact that fewer families are taking time to read together. It is also stated in the Waterstone's children's laureate charter that every child has the right to see an author event at least once. With school budgets being amongst the tightest we have known, author visits are not often something schools can stretch too. I attended the Bath Festival of Children's Literature and thought it would be amazing for families in Cornwall to have access to events like this.

I knew we needed to make the festival affordable for families in St Austell and surrounding areas. I started by speaking to Cornwall-based author Naomi Jones who was happy to introduce me to her author friends who were also based in Cornwall. This was a great start but we needed to make sure that we had a wider range of authors. Being in school, I can see what is popular with children and what is good. There is also a strong reading teacher community on social media which recommends books. Following the success of the first festival, we have also been contacted by authors asking if they can join us.

I learnt that I needed a bigger team to help organise it and was very pleased when a number of volunteers from last year offered to help take on larger roles organising things like accommodation and travel for the authors. This year we have expanded to cover three days, including a schools day which will help schools spread the word about the festival.

This is our biggest challenge as we also aim to make the festival accessible to all. We have kept the price at £1 to try and ensure as many families can come as possible. We are currently not able to apply for some grants as we are not a charity, so we have approached local businesses and organisations for support. We have received sponsorship from companies including Coodes, Ocean & Country, Hawkins Motors and St Austell Brewery, and grants from St Austell Town Council, Cornwall Council, Feast and the Cornwall Community Grant Foundation. We have also received support in kind from White River Cinema, White River Place, Cornwall Signs and St Austell Printing Company. Running the festival is very expensive and we are always looking for sponsors and supporters.

Making a difference to young lives through the power of reading and celebrating the fact that choosing to read improves life outcomes; enabling children to experience a live author event; supporting families in choosing to read together; and inspiring a community that embraces reading for pleasure.

Seeing the joy when children make a connection with an author or book. Listening to the book chatter amongst families. Seeing St Austell full of people that have come into the town because they have the opportunity to listen to authors, meet their heroes and get their books signed. Sadly, for me, I am not likely to see much of the author events myself as I will be spending my time helping to make sure everyone is in the right place at the right time. I will look forward to the feedback, which if as positive as last year, will make my heart sing.

We really want to make this an annual event but like all of these things that will depend on support and funding. We know reading for pleasure changes lives and we hope to make the festival part of the catalyst for making a difference for many years to come.