The Children’s Bookshow brings the joy of books and reading to schoolchildren across the UK each autumn. This year, the much loved and hugely popular national tour of writers and illustrators of children’s literature features an exciting line up of authors and illustrators celebrating 21 years on the road.
“Stories can be like magic. Sometimes they’re the only way to make sense of the world,” Michael Rosen
The beautifully written-and-illustrated books showcased in the 2023 Children’s Bookshow feature a wide variety of stories and endearing characters. A favourite is Stone Age Boy by author and illustrator Satoshi Kitamura. A little boy walking along trips up, stumbles and falls into the Stone Age! He meets a girl his own age, and her tribe, and learns all about their way of life. He watches them make tools, clothes, weapons . . . He sees how they hunt, fish, cook, celebrate, and how they paint on the walls of caves. But when a furious cave bear attacks, he wakes up back in his own time where everyone tells him it was only a dream . . . Or was it?
The Children’s Bookshow 2023 tour dates & venues . . .
Ele Fountain, London – Friday 29 September
Yasmeen Ismail, Exeter – Tuesday 3 October
Michael Rosen, Peterborough – Wednesday 4 October
Benji Davies, Wolverhampton – Wednesday 5 October
Owen Sheers & Helen Stephens, Coventry – Thursday 12 October
Alexis Deacon, Hull – Monday 16 October
Jan Blake, Bristol – Tuesday 31 October
Kate Wakeling & Elena Brastina, Ipswich – Thursday 2 November
Satoshi Kitamura, Sheffield – Monday 6 November
Frank Cottrell Boyce, Blackpool – Tuesday 7 November
Marta Altes Stables, Milton Keynes – Monday 13 November
Anna Woltz, L’Institut Français, London SW7 – Thursday 16 November
John Agard & Grace Nichols, Newcastle – Friday 17 November
Book soon or else all the tickets will have gone and you’ll feel sad! We want you to smile!
Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development… Reading widely and often increases pupils’ vocabulary because they encounter words they would rarely hear or use in everyday speech. Reading also feeds pupils’ imagination and opens up a treasure-house of wonder and joy for curious minds.
Primary National Curriculum
Competition
The Children’s Bookshow is offering the winner an opportunity to meet writer Owen Sheers at the National History Museum, and receive a signed copy of his new book illustrated by Helen Stephens, Drew, Moo, and Bunny, too (Walker Books). The prize is for two adults and one child sharing a hotel room for two nights on a bed and breakfast basis, and return travel to London. The award ceremony will take place at the National History Museum in February 2024. Free books worth £200 will be donated to your school classroom or library.
Six runners-up will win a copy of Drew, Moo and Bunny, too signed by Owen Sheers and illustrator Helen Stephens.
What to do to win the prize!
Owen Sheers, in his picture book Drew, Moo and Bunny, too tells the story of a small boy’s magical journey on a flying carpet with his best friends Bunny and Moo to see beautiful things in the natural world, like a whale’s moonlight waterspout, or a sleeping tiger.
What we would like you to do is to draw a picture with coloured pencils, crayons, paint, felt tips – whatever you choose. The picture should be of whatever wonder you would like to see in the world, for example, the Northern Lights, the Aurora Borealis in Finland or the Victoria Falls in Africa. You name it, it’s your choice, and you have the wonders of the whole world to choose from!
Underneath your picture we would like you to write two lines beginning:
“I’d like to be able to fly on a magic carpet to see ____________” put in your choice and tell us why.
Think hard and create your picture, then write your two sentences and email the picture with your two sentences to us.
Competition Judge
Writer and illustrator, Yasmeen Ismail, whose books include Time for Bed, Fred, will be waiting to read and to judge your entries!
Age category
You must be aged 11 or under and resident in the UK
Submit your entries via email: competition [at] thechildrensbookshow [dot] com
The Children’s Bookshow, a registered charity no.1162410, is a national tour of some of the best children’s writers and illustrators from around the world. With Arts Council England support as a National Portfolio Organisation, the Unwin Charitable Trust, Old Possum’s Practical Trust, Give A Book, L’Institut Français, and most importantly, the wonderfully supportive publishers of our artists, we are delighted to present a line-up of 16 brilliant writers and illustrators in 13 theatre performances together with 52 free workshops in schools.
A BookBlast exclusive. Copyright © The Children’s Bookshow c/o BookBlast Ltd, London. Photographs & graphical images copyright © their respective copyright holders. All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, the content herein is only for your personal and non-commercial use.
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