Kathy Urban Tales
CREATING MEANINGFUL CHILDRENāS STORIES
that entertain, educate & inspire actions toward a kinder world
LitFest Fans - I got some exciting news to shareā¦
Iāll to be returning to the 18th edition of the Emirates Airlines Festival of Literature - with my brand new book āA Tree for Everyoneā - a heart warming tale of teamwork, second chances and the healing power of a meaningful apology.
When: š Saturday - January 24 @2:00pm
Where: šFestival Lawn
We will climb, we will sing, we will discover the power of good word choices.
Join me for an interactive storytelling & crafts session where - with your help - we will see the tree come to live!
I cannot wait to share this story with you out there on the lawn at the most wonderful literacy showcase the Middle East has to offer, celebrating books and the stories inside them #seeyouatthelitfest #wherestorieshappen
See you very soon. Kathy
One little toy bunny and one magical Christmas Adventure
Join Lola & I this December at Les Marionettes Dubai for a series of magical festive storytimes featuring my holiday book Hop Lola Hop: A Magical Christmas Adventure.
There will be puppets, storytelling, crafts, and lots of Christmas sparkle! And of course a signed book for every STORYLOVER to take home.
ā³ 1h30 of Christmas magic
š 30 minutes of festive storytelling
š Signed copy of Hop Lola Hop: A Magical Christmas Adventure
šØ Christmas crafts with Les Marionnettes
šø 150 AED
Spots are limited and tend to fill quickly - book via the link in my bio or go directly to @lesmarionnettesdubaiā.
If youāre looking for a cosy, heartwarming activity for little ones this festive season, Iād love to see you there.
Just to let you know ā¦
This is an incredibly proud moment as my quiet little book - that's how I like to call it - has made a hell lot of a buzz this past year raising funds for seeds to grow over 1000 metres of vital wildflower corridors for Buglife to enable pollinators move more freely.
Thank you to everyone who purchased a copy of this book. You did make a difference.
A special thank you to London Early Years Foundation (LEYF) for their very generous contribution and for inviting me to read to all of their nurseries.
It was a pleasure sharing the book with your children and I will continue to do so (8 down - 35 more to go)
With every copy sold of āKind Little Handsā , weāre helping fund wildflower seeds to create vital spaces for bees, butterflies, and other pollinatorsā equivalent in size to the book itself.
This is part of a beautiful collaboration with Buglife - The Invertebrate Conservation Trust who are leading incredible rewilding efforts across the UK to protect those creatures that keep our ecosystems in balance.
The reprint of the UK edition has now landed and I hope it will continue to help inspire children to take meaningful sustainable action and support Bugleās work.
Please keep sharing, supporting, and reading. Together we can make a difference.
Little by little.
Inch by inch.
Leaf by leafā¦
Kathy x
A BIG Milestone for our Quiet Little Book
For the Love of Stories
What a Book Launch
Sep. 27 at the Courtyard Playhouse
I always loved stories, then and now, and the best ones I found in books. How proud that little bookworm would be if she had known that one day sheād begin a writing career, entertaining children with stories of her own.
This weekend I had the joy of sharing my latest book, A Tree for Everyone, with a full house at Dubaiās Courtyard Playhouse. Itās a story about friendship, collaboration, how things can go wrong, and why play is so essential in helping us find our way back to each other.
We laughed, we imagined, stacked boxes, and joined the silly actors in pretend games of pirates, flowers, and wriggly worms making their way up the apple tree.
We celebrated storytelling in its most magical formāwith plenty of laugh-out-loud moments and one special highlight that saw our littlest audience members decorate one BIG cardboard tree with their handprints.
That tree will be traveling with me as I continue sharing this book and hopefully see many more handprints added to it.
A huge thanks to everyone at the Courtyard who worked so hard to make this event a success. And thank you, Team Bookworm for your continued support (if you missed the event, my books are available at both the Meadows and Umm Suqeim branches).
Tonight, I feel deeply grateful for so many things: the childhood that shaped me, the stories that continue to grow from it, and everyoneābig and smallāwho comes out to listen to them.
Thank you.
A Tree For Everyone
Set around an old oak tree, two groups of children find themselves at odds with each other. As angry words halt their play, can the children find a way forward to share their special place and turn strangers into friends?
A heartwarming story about the value of teamwork, second chances and the healing power of a meaningful apology.
A Tree for Everyone publishes October 9, 2025, with Little Steps Publishing, and will be available in the UK, Australia and other territories. An audiovisual version will also be available on Emiratesā ICE entertainment channel.
Hello! My name is Kathy Urban ā¦
⦠and I love making up stories.
Many many moons ago, it was my dad who told me about the adventures of baby giraffe and her life in the African Savannah at bedtime. The little girl that I was back then absolutely loved listening to them, which by the way did not come from a book ā my dad made them up.
It is these memories that have stayed with me all those years and eventually lead me on the path of making up my own stories as a childrenās writer. Read on ..
School Visits
Kathy offers readings, presentations and creative writing workshops for primary school classes. Her visits are fun and interactive and will help stimulate students imagination and develop their creative writing skills and confidence in becoming authors themselves.
For more info, contact: kathyurbantales@gmail.com
āStorytime with Lola & Friendsā on Emirates ICE Entertainment
āStorytime Fun with Lola and Friendsā, a brand-new childrenās entertainment channel, featuring all of my childrenās books, is now available exclusively on Emirates Airlines award-winning ICE entertainment system!
From Page to Stage
Hop Lola Hop at the Emirates LitFest 2023
Connect with Kathy Urban on Instagram




