Year 7 pupils were invited to take part in the Big Malarkey yesterday, Hull's first children's literature festival, in East Park.
The theme of the visit was 'jeopardy' and how it makes a story more interesting.
Author Bali Rai spoke at length about how he incorporates jeopardy into his novels, and pupils had the chance to write their own gripping opening chapter to a book and read them out in front of the group.
They also tried out a variety of other activities, based around literature and the spoken word.
Poet, Adisa, shared poems with the audience and encouraged them to write their own in the form of a 'cinquain' - a poem of five lines with a set number of syllables per line.
Other groups worked on storyboarding, illustration, dramatic portraits, and group drama.
The festival aims to engage young people with reading, writing and drama in a number of different ways, and runs until Sunday 3rd July.