It might have been an official school holiday, but that didn't stop scores of children from visiting the Cape Town Book Fair on Monday 15 June.

As the doors opened at 10am queues of children, many of them in school uniform, poured into the exhibition hall. At the Children's Zone youngsters heard from Carole Bloch that "Books are Friends", and they got into the party mood as they celebrated the 10th birthday of the Gruffalo at the Pan MacMillan stand.

Fair Director Vanessa Badroodien said it was "wonderful to see how many teachers and parents have brought children to the fair".

"I'm thrilled to see how many teachers have given up their day off to bring children to the fair."

"By exposing young people to books they discover the magic reading, and the knowledge and pleasure that can be gained from it. This embodies the theme of the fair: "Education for the Future".

Families also visited the fair in large numbers taking their children to meet authors, and to shake hands with life-size figures of Peter Rabbit and Spot, among others.

Badroodien said that they ran out of the green entry wristbands for children and had to order more, "which is fantastic because it shows that more children than we expected have visited the fair".

The school children were not shy in asking questions: a panel of teens quizzed British writer Kevin Brooks on how he plotted his stories, whether he had all the answers to life, and what he liked most about being a writer.