About

Bookaroo – a children’s literature festival set up by Bookaroo Trust, a public charitable trust – endeavours to make books come alive through interactions between children and creators of books and storytellers.

The festival that began in 2008 has, since, travelled to 17 cities (15 in India and one each in Malaysia and Sri Lanka) and has completed 46 editions in 15 years, focuses on ‘Reading for Pleasure’ (Before you read further, you may want to see what is coming up – click here to see upcoming editions). And for a glimpse of what happened in the past, please click here.

Bookaroo’s mission is to bring back the wonder of imagination and reconnect children everywhere with the world of literature in a fun way. Bookaroo’s journey started with the setting up of India’s first exclusive children’s bookstore Eureka in 2003, where book-related events were held nearly every weekend. The idea was to create a place that children could call their own, choose books of their choice without parents or teachers dictating what a good book is.

Bookaroo’s outreach programme – Bookaroo in the City – visits those children who cannot come to the festival for various reasons. Bookaroo in the City covers destinations such as hospitals, healthcare centres, schools for underserved, special needs, construction sites, orphanages, remedial homes and juvenile detention centre. The festival also aims to re-introduce public spaces to children through book-related activities. As part of the outreach, Bookaroo has taken stories and art to parks, metro stations, monuments, museums and public libraries.

Bookaroo is a winner of the Literary Festival Award at the London Book Fair’s International Excellence Awards, 2017. It was the first time that an Indian children’s literature festival was recognised in the international arena.

Bookaroo is a public charitable trust and is dependent on donations, grants and support from individuals as well as organisations. If you feel that you can donate to the cause and help the Trust grow and reach out to more children, please click here to contribute.

All donors will receive a certificate of donation (Form 10BE).

Bookaroo is a registered charitable trust with 80G and 12A registrations.
80G Regn No: AABTB4683RF20216; CSR Regn no: CSR00006036; Trust Regn No: 6254