Rekindling the love for books at Bookaroo Festival

Held at IGNCA on November 30 and December 1, 2019 Bookaroo is India’s first children’s literature festival. This year was the 12th edition in Delhi of this special festival. There were 85 speakers and authors from 8 countries across the globe –Australia, France, Switzerland, Sri Lanka, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, and New Zealand. The event features 120 fun-filled sessions on art and craft, climate change, mythology, history, general knowledge, puppets, travel, growing-up issues, music, nature and wildlife etc. For the first time, there were sessions for adults at the festival. The topics ranged from how to choose a good book for children, behavior issues for growing children, what are children scared of etc.

Swati Roy, festival director, Bookaroo says, “It is heartening to see that our mission of bringing children and books together through an exclusive children’s literature festival is gaining ground.”

While, Venkatesh M, co-founder and festival director, Bookaroo, said,“We are thankful to Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts (IGNCA) for collaborating with Bookaroo since 2010. This year has been a particularly tough one financially. We are grateful to Fevicreate (Pidilite) and Childline India Foundation for giving us a big push out of trouble. Others like British School, DK, Hachette and Pathways Aravalli pitched in generously. A special thanks to Takshila Educational Society for standing by us.”