As the world heads towards normalcy, Bookaroo — India’s first and biggest Children’s Literature Festival came back to Vadodara on Nov 19th and 20th, 2022 and make young humans fall in love with books and stories.
This annual festival, organised by the Bookaroo Trust, aspires to connect children with the world of imagination through books and storytelling in an exciting manner. Started off in 2008 as a solo edition in New Delhi, the festival has spread its cheer in 17 cities across 38 editions.
The second edition of Bookaroo Children’s Literature Festival in Vadodara – and the 39th overall was organised at the Art District, Alembic City.
This year, Bookaroo brought along 33 speakers with 57 sessions. They shared the joy of books through storytelling, art workshops, craft, writing events and more. This was a perfect opportunity for young folks from 4-14 age to come, interact with the authors and illustrators and immerse themselves in creativity.
The speakers in Bookaroo Vadodara were
Authors Abhishek Talwar, Lubaina Bandukwala, Nalini Ramachandran, Nandita da Cunha, Shabnam Minwalla, Yuti Jhaveri and illustrators Lavanya Karthik, Likla and Kripa from Mumbai
Champa Saha and Preethi Menon, Priya Kuriyan, Mala Kumar, Menaka Raman, Shalini Satish and Raam Baranidharan, Priyankar Gupta and Sudha Madhavan from Bangalore.
Illustrators Tithee Dixit and Kavya Gokhale, authors Varsha Seshan and Pervin Saket from Pune.
Unnati Shah (storyteller) from Ahmedabad and Sandeep Virmani (author) from Kutch.
Rohini Vij from Kanpur, Shruti Hemani from Jaipur, Arthi Anand Navaneeth from Chennai, Pratika Gupta from Bhopal and Seema Wahi Mukherjee from Gurgaon.
Illustrator Mariona Cabassa from Spain, Nic and Ines (artists and authors) from Portugal.
Bookaroo Vadodara hosted international speakers for the first time this year. Mariona Cabassa, who is a Spanish illustrator, has illustrated over 80 books while the Portuguese duo, Nic and Inês, apart from publishing several books in their unique studio conduct art workshops all over the world.
With the return to a new normal, Bookaroo believes in giving wounds some room to heal. The two-day-long ongoing session ‘Healing Wall’ aims to use art as a medium of expression and create a space for children to release their feelings. Whatever wounds, be it being cooped up in their homes or dreading their homework, the ‘Healing Wall’ will be all ears!
Apart from the festival bookstore, Eureka!, that will stock all the participating authors’ and illustrators’ books, Bookaroo Vadodara will also be home to a display of noteworthy, carefully curated children’s titles that are on the Parag Honour List, an initiative of Tata Trusts. Children can buy and have their books signed by the participating authors.
Sharing the vision of promoting reading for pleasure, Bookaroo’s programme will engage children in sessions of dramatic storytelling, writing and illustration workshops, sessions encompassing both fiction and non-fiction.
“It is with a sense of relief and joy that we welcome Bookaroo’s first foray outside Delhi in three years. This edition in Baroda has a great mix of Indian and international speakers,” says Swati Roy, Festival Director, adding, “we would like to thank our partners in Baroda, Alembic Ciy’s Krupa Amin and Udit Amin in particular – for backing us without hesitation.”
