Bookaroo Children’s Literature Festival

Bookaroo, India’s first children’s literature festival!

Bookaroo Delhi 2022, which is the festival’s 14th edition in Delhi will be held at the picturesque National Rail Museum, Chanakyapuri  New Delhi on November 26th and 27th, 2022  from 11 AM to 4:30 PM

Organised by Delhi-based Bookaroo Trust -it is India’s first literature festival of its kind. The nine-city festival began in November 2008 as a solo in the capital and has journeyed through 16 cities and completed 40 editions since with the mission to bring back the wonder of imagination and make reading books fascinating in today’s world for children.

Bookaroo is a dream that became a beautiful reality. As it became India’s most-travelled festival, Bookaroo’s spin-offs too have become much looked forward to. Whether it is the outreach programme, Bookaroo in the City (wherein the festival goes to institutions and schools underserved and regular), or the annual Bookart exhibition that showcases the best original artwork from children’s books, Bookaroo has been fortunate to get unconditional love of children everywhere. All the credit for this goes to its authors, illustrators, storytellers, craftspeople, sponsors, supporters, publishers, partners, volunteers, and the children who turn up with undiminished enthusiasm edition after edition – sometimes even after they have outgrown the festival.

Highlights of Delhi 2022:

A touch of Science: learn some easy do-it-yourself science tricks in Hindi, listen to the story of a star women scientist from India who did not receive the glory she deserved, ask some serious and funny questions, and know all about science for Smartypants.

A touch of History and architecture: board the History Express to discover ancient art galleries, temples, and the coolest building in the country; test your wits – how well you know the makers of modern India – and pick up a fun fact or three! Find out all about some amazing ancient NRIs. Participate in a quiz about iconic monuments

Poetry: write poems of your own about strange pets; discover rhythm and find out about limericks and other forms of rhymes. There is a lot of fun you can have with poetry.

Puppets and play: a specially woven story for you with puppets on a stick; make your own puppet and take it home.. there is a toy workshop with bags of fun

Read, write, draw, create or just listen to stories – there is something for everyone in Bookaroo.

Apart from the festival bookstore, Eureka!, that will stock all the participating authors’ and illustrators’ books, Bookaroo will also be home to a display of noteworthy, carefully curated children’s titles that are on the annual Parag Honour List, an initiative of Tata Trusts. These titles comprise three years of the PHL list – 2022, 2021, and 2020.

Entry is on a first-come, first-seated basis. Entry into NRM is ticketed at Rs 20 for a child and Rs 100 for an adult, but sessions at Bookaroo are free to attend. The nearest metro stations are M Visvesvaraya Moti Bagh and Lok Kalyan Marg (formerly Race Course Road). This year, you can also book your tickets ahead on the National Rail Museum to avoid waiting in long queues at the venue.