Concrete Playground

This is one library from which your books really mustn't become overdue. For an exciting addition to the Sydney Children's Festival, presented by CarriageWorks in association with the Daily Telegraph, organisers are calling for 'books' to take part in the festival's Living Library.

As a 'book', you would be on loan to children to talk about your life; the happy times, the sad times, the past, the future, the regrets and the proudest moments. What you've learnt, and what you want others to know. It needn't be that deep, however. Anyone with a story can be a book. The festival's associate producer Kyra Bartley has stated she is looking for "... people of all ages, cultural backgrounds, and from all walks of life to be books. We’ll be enlisting kid’s [sic] ‘dream job’ people like firemen, doctors, vets and astronauts if we can find them, as well as people with quintessential ‘Australian Stories’ — people who have migrated to Oz and seen the times change; someone from a tattoo parlour in The Cross covered head to toe in ink; a blind person talking about how they experience the world; and actors and storytellers who can pull the kid’s [sic] legs with tall tales and jokes."

"Simply put, everyone has a story to tell, and no-one knows how to tell your story like you do. It doesn’t have to be wild and wacky (although it certainly can be), just something from your life that you feel makes it unique."

The children will be told not to dogear your pages, write in your margins or break your spine.

Information on how to become a book can be found on the CarriageWorks blog. The 2010 Sydney Children's Festival runs from September 27 to October 9.