Best-selling children’s authors share their skills in special Literary Festival events
The Dandenong Ranges Literary Festival will this year host two incredible children’s events with best-selling authors Zeno Sworder and George Ivanoff in partnership with Belgrave Library, as part of Book Week and the September school holidays.
George Ivanoff is a Melbourne author of more than 100 books for kids and teens, including Monster Island, the interactive You Choose series, the RFDS Adventures, the OTHER WORLDS series, the Gamers trilogy, and the non-fiction Survival Guides. He’s also authored school readers and educational books.
George’s books and stories have been shortlisted for numerous awards, winning several of them. George says he “drinks too much coffee, eats too much chocolate and watches too much Doctor Who”. He has one wife, two children and an “uncontrollable imagination”.
In a special Book Week event titled Choose Your Own Stories, George will take children through his writing process and show them how to plan their own interactive stories at a workshop for 8-12-year-olds on Wednesday, August 26, 4-5pm. Cost $8.
Award-winning author and illustrator Zeno Sworder will be at the Belgrave Library during the September school holidays for a special program for 8-12-year-olds on Wednesday, September 30 from 11am-12pm.
Sworder is the author and illustrator of This Small Blue Dot, and My Strange Shrinking Parents.
His latest book Once I Was a Giant won the 2026 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Children’s Literature and the 2026 Australian Book Industry Award, (ABIA) book of the year.
Zeno will read from Once I Was a Giant, share a range of art activities, and work with children to make a small picture book. Cost is $10.
Bookings for both events are essential.
Tickets will be available through the Your Library events page or in person at the Belgrave Library one month before each event.