The Children's Bookshow is a charity that inspires school children with a love of reading through an annual programme of in-theatre and digital performances and in-school workshops with the very best authors and illustrators from around the world.
What's happening?
Read The Children’s Bookshow 2024 Autumn Tour
Read about our Autumn Tour, and the books we featured... and why we love them!
Keep up-to-date with what we're doing
During term time we send regular newsletters with an update on what The Children's Bookshow is doing. It could be a book of the week focus, news from our events team, a reading list of our current favourites and activities for children to do at home. Sign up below. You can discover more about great children's books by exploring our website and looking especially at our What's Happening? section.
Autumn performances 2024
Our autumn programme is now finished, but click on the links below to find out how it went, see photographs of our performances and workshops, and hear what people said.
- Al Rodin performance, Milton Keynes, Thursday 26th September
- Owen Sheers and Helen Stephens performance, Wolverhampton, Wednesday 2nd October
- Kate Wakeling and Elīna Brasliņa performance, Exeter, Monday 7th October
- Valerie Bloom performance, Newcastle, Wednesday 9th October
- Kwame Alexander performance, London, Tuesday 15th October
- Ele Fountain performance, Ipswich, Thursday 17th October
- Sydney Smith performance, Hull, Tuesday 22nd October
- Sydney Smith London performance, London, Friday 25th October
- SF Said performance, Coventry, Tuesday 5th November
- Sam Usher performance, Portsmouth, Tuesday 12th November
- Frank Cottrell-Boyce performance, Peterborough, Thursday 14th November
- Michael Rosen performance, Blackpool, Monday 18th November
- Catherine Johnson performance, Bristol, Wednesday 20th November
- Béatrice Rodriguez performance, London, Thursday 21st November
We've been busy at The Children's Bookshow...
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A round-up of our theatre tour 2024
Read on for a round-up of our autumn tour, plus news of a book giveaway and video release.
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‘An Evening In’ with Just Imagine and The Children’s Bookshow
Have you ever wondered how The Children’s Bookshow works, behind the scenes? Join us for an online event with Just Imagine and Director of The Children’s Bookshow, Kate Arafa to find out more about the work we do, why we do it, and how you can get involved!
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Write a poem with Kate Wakeling
Why not try writing a poem? Kate Wakeling shows you how.
Competition!
Competition 2024
Enter this year's competition for the chance to win a trip to the Discover Story Centre in London and meet poet Michael Rosen! The winner will also receive a signed book from every author and illustrator in our autumn programme plus £200 of FREE books for their school classroom or library.
We love poetry at The Children's Bookshow. Enjoy listening to Valerie Bloom talk about how poetry makes her feel.
The Children's Bookshow takes children's authors to meet tens of thousands of children, introducing the children to how and why writers write, illustrators illustrate. They give children insights into how they too can transform thoughts and feelings into words and pictures. This is not simply a matter of it being enjoyable, it's a necessary part of what we understand by the word 'education'.
This year The Children's Bookshow will give over 7000 children participating in our programme a free, signed copy of the author's book to take home, thanks to the generous support of Unwin Charitable Trust.
Thousands of children attended our events to celebrate World Book Day!
Thursday 7th March was World Book Day, and we celebrated the joy of books and reading with two very special events for primary school children. Find out more about what happened, and link to the event recordings here!
