Reading is Magic Festival

Posted on Wednesday, September 15, 2021
Category: Events

Reading is Magic Festival

The free online Reading is Magic book festival, created by the Bath Children's Literature Festival, will run events for schools and families from Monday 27 September to Friday 1 October. 

The Reading is Magic book festival will offer hands-on projects to do at home or in the classroom, draw-alongs and plenty of inspiration to get children reading and writing.


Young readers will still be able to also enjoy live events as the Bath Children's Literature Festival will take place in Bath, 24 September – 4 October.


Joining the free and inclusive programme in 2021 are Cressida Cowell, the current Children's Laureate who inspired the festival's name, Reading is Magic, and Michael Rosen, author of many children's favourites including We're Going on a Bear Hunt. 


Also bringing inter-active events to the festival are illustrator Rob Biddulph, the artist behind the online hit Draw With Rob, Laura Ellen Anderson, illustrator and creator of Amelia Fang and Frank Cottrell Boyce, author of laugh-out-loud books for children, including Millions and who worked with Danny Boyle to write the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony.


There will also be talks from YA authors Holly Bourne and Will Sutcliffe (whose book Whatever Makes You Happy became a hit Netflix film Otherhood), graphic novelist Alice Oseman, poet Rebecca Tantony and US middle grade author BB Alston, creator of Amari and the Night Brothers. 


Over the five days, from Monday 27 September to Friday 1 October, different themes from Cressida Cowell's Waterstones Children's Laureate Charter will be discussed. These range from empowering children to play their part in looking after the area where they live, to opening discussions about issues facing LGBTQ+ and disabled people as well as the power of friendship. There will be events that encourage creativity in words and pictures and others to make young people think about what they want from books and relationships.


Each event is carefully targeted at different age groups, ranging from five-year-olds, through to young adults. Festival programmers have talked to teachers about what was successful in last year's Reading is Magic Festival and taken care to reflect what is taught in schools.


As with last year's festival Bath Children's Literature Festival has teamed up with festival partners in different parts of the world, with events coming from Kingston in Jamaica, Toronto and Dublin, among others. The partnership of festivals and programmers is made up of Bath Children's Literature Festival, Boswell Book Festival, Bradford Literature Festival, Kingston Book Festival, the Irish Children's Laureate, New Dutch Writing, Seven Stories, Toronto International Festival of Authors and Wigtown Book Festival.


The 2020 Reading is Magic Festival was estimated to have been watched by 150,000 children and young people in more than 65 countries worldwide.


For the full programme visit readingismagicfestival.com and follow @bathkidslitfest on social media.