Bookalore: book club with a difference!

Read about the solar system; then create your own planets from dough and upcycled materials. Be part of a fantasy adventure novel through games and puzzles. Discover India through a quiz. Listen to stories, create puppet characters, read the books… that’s what you do at Bookalore! Bookalore, an independent not-for-profit Bangalore-based forum, celebrates stories and introduces Indian books to children of all ages and young adults. The events are fun-packed and filled with exciting, innovative activities.

Mission…

A group of children’s writers, illustrators, editors, librarians, teachers and filmmakers came together in January 2013 to bring young readers face to face with the invisible folks behind the books they read and share the work of lesser-known international children’s writers whose books delight and inspire us. They host events at libraries, schools, community halls, club houses, bookstores, cultural centres, theatres, etc.

This initiative hopes to fill huge lacunae in the way children’s books are displayed, sold and marketed in India by making them more visible to their readers.

Bookalore vis-a-vis other book clubs…

Bookalore is distinctive in that it is a collective of people who are creators of books, magazines and other reading material for children. It is also different in that it is a book-centric forum. Their focus is clearly on books and promoting reading for joy.

Events galore…

Bookalore is something of a travelling book carnival, which takes its activities and events to every corner of Bangalore. They aim to reach a large number of children across the city by hosting their events in different kinds of public and private spaces. Bookalore seeks to reach every kind of young reader, including those who have access to well-stocked libraries at school and home and those who don’t. Dramatized book-readings, meetthe- author sessions, watching stories being illustrated, quizzes, creative writing workshops, book-based activity sessions and other such fun activities are on offer at Bookalore’s events.

Core team…

Their core team members include well-known personalities like Aditi De (author & editor), Asha Nehemiah (author), Poile Sengupta (author & playwright), Shyam Madhavan Sarada (illustrator & film-maker), Vidya Mani (author & editor), Vijaylakshmi Nagaraj (author & storyteller) and Vimala Malhotra (reading consultant & librarian).