Performances
The Children’s Bookshow brings some of the best children’s authors from the UK and abroad to local theatre venues and gives teachers and school children the opportunity to hear world-class artists talk about their work.
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
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More about our performances
We give children the chance to experience an inspiring ‘live’ encounter with an artist. Our authors and illustrators talk about their working lives, show children the paint brushes and notebooks that they use, the tools and tricks of their trade, and in doing this, they offer children a real insight into what it means to work creatively. Feedback from children show their strong appetite for new and challenging experiences, their feeling of personal connection to the writers whom they have met, and their sense of being inspired by contact with creative artists. We want children to feel that great literature and art is for them; that they can engage with it, enjoy it and practise it.
View by Cycle
Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development… Reading widely and often increases pupils’ vocabulary because they encounter words they would rarely hear or use in everyday speech. Reading also feeds pupils’ imagination and opens up a treasure-house of wonder and joy for curious minds.
Want to help more children attend events like these in the future?