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?
Autumn performances 2026
Booking for our autumn performances opens on Friday 1st May. But here's a sneak preview of some of our events - exciting!
- Michael Rosen performance, Wolverhampton, Thursday 24th September
- Kate Wakeling and Elīna Brasliņa performance, Coventry, Monday 5th October
- Valerie Bloom performance, Peterborough, Wednesday 7th October
- Rebecca Cobb and Mariesa Dulak performance, Hull, Tuesday 13th October
- SF Said performance, Wakefield, Monday 19th October
- Katherine Rundell performance, London, Wednesday 21st October
- Anna Woltz performance, Ipswich, Thursday 22nd October
- Frank Cottrell-Boyce performance, Prescot, Tuesday 3rd November
- Daniel Morden performance, Bristol, Wednesday 4th November
- Matt Goodfellow performance, Newcastle, Thursday 5th November
- Helen Stephens and Katie Chappell performance, Fareham, Monday 9th November
- Chris Naylor-Ballesteros performance, Exeter, Tuesday 10th November
- Ken Wilson-Max performance, Milton Keynes, Thursday 12th November
- Kwame Alexander performance, Blackpool, Monday 23rd November
2026 is the National Year of Reading!
Taking part in a Children's Bookshow event is the perfect way to ignite a love of reading! Children get to come to an exciting venue and listen to our brilliant authors talk about what inspires and delights them, watch poets perform, hear storytellers weave their magic and witness illustrators bring imagined worlds to life on the page. We give a carefully selected book to every child who comes to one of our performances, opening their eyes to how exciting reading can be! In each place we visit we offer four lucky schools a creative workshop in their school with the author or illustrator they have seen on stage.
We've been busy at The Children's Bookshow...
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Fundraising artwork auction is announced
We're hosting an art and illustration auction to help raise funds to support our programme of free in-school workshops in 2026. Find out more here!
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Seeking a Treasurer and a Trustee
Are you passionate about helping children develop a love of reading? Find out more here.
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The Children's Bookshow releases 2024 Impact Report
We have released a report detailing the impact that our work had in 2024. Read on!
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.
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.