Bookaroo Children's Literature Festival Lands in Lanka for its Enchanting Debut

The first edition of Bookaroo Childrens Literature Festival in Colombo will be held from Friday with over 20 speakers from five countries scheduled to participate in 50 sessions for two days.The festival will feature storytelling, workshops, writing events, and art and craft for 4 to 14-year-olds.

The first edition of Bookaroo Children's Literature Festival in Colombo will be held from Friday with over 20 speakers from five countries scheduled to participate in 50 sessions for two days.

The festival will feature storytelling, workshops, writing events, and art and craft for 4 to 14-year-olds. Authors including Arefa Tehsin of India, Chantal-Fleur Sandjon, Professor J B Disanayaka, Janaki Galappatti, Nadishka Aloysius, Rukhshanie Weerasooriya Wijemanne and Shehan Karunatilaka are in the participants list. Illustrators Ashok Rajagopalan, Canato Jimo, Deepa Balsavar, Irushi Tenekkoon, Lavanya Karthik, Nina Sabnani, Priya Kuriyan, Savio Mascarenhas and Shenuka Corea and storytellers Alicia Dongjoo Bang, Champa Saha and Lavanya Prasad are also scheduled to participate.

Festival director Swati Roy said there is a ''great mix of Sri Lankan and international speakers speaking on diverse subjects and bringing flavours from different parts of the world''. She said the sessions range from poetry to illustration workshops to an ongoing all-day, all-ages activity to keep those children who may have missed entering a session busy.

She thanked the collaborators in Sri Lanka, especially LPF Bernie Anderson and Adityavikram More, saying their zeal helped make this edition a reality. The festival is being presented by LPF (La Petite Fleur) Schools to celebrate 30 years of service to the child. LPF founder Bernie Anderson said 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''.

Bookaroo is arguably India's first and biggest children's literature festival, organised by the Bookaroo Trust. Started off in 2008 as a solo edition in New Delhi, the festival has spread to 16 cities.

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