Children's book festival promises much fun, education
LPF Schools and Bridge2Peace Foundation brings BOOKAROO Children’s Literature Festival to Sri Lanka for the first time.
The first edition of Bookaroo Children’s Literature Festival in Colombo will be held on May 10-11. The Colombo edition is being presented by LPF (La Petite Fleur) Schools to celebrate 30 years of service to the child.
Founded by Bernie Anderson in 1993, LPF Schools offer an exemplary educational journey for children. LPF also spearheads the Bridge2Peace programme, an outreach arm that extends the school’s ethos of compassion and excellence to the most impoverished areas of Sri Lanka. With a curriculum rooted in life’s fundamental principles, LPF nurtures students into independent, confident, and compassionate learners.
Bookaroo is India’s first and biggest Children’s Literature Festival. The festival continues its attempts to spread the joy of books and reading in its 17th port of call in what will be the 45th edition of the festival in its 16th year.
This annual festival, organised by the Bookaroo Trust, is a completely non-ticketed event. It 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 16 cities.
Says Bernie Anderson, LPF’s founder: “Giving Back” being our only intention to celebrate these 30 blessed years, Bookaroo was the perfect complement to our belief that learning is in fact a never ending story and can only happen with meaningful relationships. This completely non-ticketed two days of storytelling and so much more will celebrate each Child, Teacher, Parent, and significant relationships that tell the special story of the LPF Schools.”
Twenty one speakers (nine of whom are from Colombo) are ready to regale the children of Colombo. Of the other speakers, there are 9 from India and one each from Seoul and Berlin. Appended is the full list of the speakers and their bios.
It promises to be a weekend of sharing the joy of books through storytelling, art workshops, craft, writing events, Q&A with authors and more. It is also a perfect opportunity for young folks from 4-14 age to come, interact with the authors and illustrators and immerse themselves in creativity. The festival bookstore, Goodreads, will stock all the participating authors’ and illustrators’ books that children can buy and get signed.
“It is with delight that we anticipate Bookaroo’s second international foray outside India. We have a great mix of Sri Lankan and international speakers speaking on diverse subjects and bringing flavours from different parts of the world. The sessions range from activities to poetry to illustration workshops to an ongoing all-day, all ages activity to keep those children who may have missed entering a session busy,” says Swati Roy, Festival Director, adding, “We would like to thank our collaborators in Sri Lanka – especially Bernie Anderson in LPF and Adityavikram More whose zeal helped make this edition a reality. We look forward to working with the LPF team to make this a success.”
The festival is being supported by the ForwardAir Group, Sri Lankan Airlines, Colombo Court Hotel and by the LPF community of students, teachers and parents and other corporate sponsors. The line-up for Colombo includes Authors Arefa Tehsin, Chantal-Fleur Sandjon, Professor J B Disanayaka, Janaki Galappatti, Nadishka Aloysius, Rukhshanie Weerasooriya Wijemanne and Shehan Karunatilaka. Illustrators Ashok Rajagopalan, Canato Jimo, Deepa Balsavar, Irushi Tenekkoon, Lavanya Karthik, Nina Sabnani, Priya Kuriyan, Savio Mascarenhas and Shenuka Corea.Storytellers Alicia Dongjoo Bang, Champa Saha and Lavanya Prasad.