Reading is Magic Festival returns for its fourth year of inclusive, accessible and international online author events
“Every child has the right to read for the joy of it and see themselves reflected in a book.” Cressida Cowell
Reading is Magic Festival: Monday 2nd – Friday 6th October 2023
The Reading is Magic Festival, inspired by Cressida Cowell’s Children’s Laureate Charter and programmed by Bath Children’s Literature Festival, returns for a 4th year this Autumn with an online programme which promises inclusive, accessible author events broadcast directly into homes and schools across the globe.
International festivals will once more collaborate with Bath Children’s Literature Festival to ensure a programme of events in which every child can see themselves represented. The Reading is Magic Festival will feature a world class line up of best-selling authors, illustrators and poets as well as a number of exclusive events and high-profile anniversaries.
The festival is completely free and entirely online, meaning children in the UK and around the world can access this amazing event packed with best-selling and inpsiring writers, poets and illustrators. As we know from Cressida Cowell's Charter, every child should have the ability to see or meet an author at least once!
Reading is Magic is an inclusive and wonderfully diverse festival, set to inspire and excite children from all backgrounds, helping them all to feel seen and represented. It's a great way to kick off the Autumn term and new school year, and will nurture that ever important love of reading.
The festival will start each day with new and exciting events, with top highlights from previous years shown in the afternoon.
You can dig into the full lineup here, but special guests include James and Lucy Catchpole, Angie Thomas, Katherine Webber and Catherine Doyle, Harry Woodgate, Elle McNicoll, Cerrie Burnell, David Almond, Sita Brahmachari, Steven Lenton and Tracey Corderoy, with Cressida Cowell and Joseph Coelho of course, along with more inspiring creators from the world of children's publishing.
The current Children's Laureate, Joseph Coelho, will host his first live Bookmaker Like You event, which is designed to inspire every child to see themselves as a bookmaker, and it will celebrate authors and illustrators from under-represented communities and backgrounds.
Exclusive Reading is Magic Festival Dazzle Boxes, with 20% off!
We are so excited to have created special Dazzle Boxes, just for the Reading is Magic Festival with 20% off!
Perfect for any schools or families taking part in the festival, these bespoke packages will contain a number of titles by the authors, poets and illustrators featured over the week. You can choose a mixed pack including Teen, or Primary only.
Our Dazzle Packs come wrapped like a gift, in paper and finished with ribbon. Why not open them in your school assemblies to get the children really excited about their new books and the upcoming festival, or make the week a very special event at home.
Joseph Coelho says:
"I'm so pleased to be back at the Reading is Magic Festival and to be hosting a Bookmaker Like You Event with the brilliant J T Williams. Seeing writers talk about and share their work was instrumental in me becoming a writer today and I am excited to see the impact that festivals Like Reading is Magic and projects Like Bookmaker Like You will have in not only creating the next generation of bookmakers but also in enlivening bookshelves everywhere.”
Cressida Cowell will open the Festival with a 20 years of How to Train Your Dragon celebration, and will introduce each day of the amazing line up. Ths year's event will be hosted by Blue Peter presenter and magicial Joel Mawhinney.
The festival name came from Cressida Cowell's key message: ‘reading is magic, and magic is for everyone’ and this focus on inclusivity underpins the very essence of the festival. Speaking to the accessibility of the event, organisers say:
"The programme has been thoughtfully designed to ensure that every young person is able to participate. All visual events have captions, a British Sign Language interpreter and the festival has worked with Bath-based The Egg Theatre’s young audio describers to advise the authors and illustrators on audio describing so that more children can enjoy them. Reading is Magic Festival has partnered with Calibre Audio to ensure that children who struggle to access print can enjoy the books that will be featured in the programme."
Cressida Cowell, Waterstones Children’s Laureate 2019 – 2022 says:
“I am delighted that the Reading is Magic Festival has become a lasting legacy of my Children's Laureate Charter and will return in the Autumn for a 4th year. The Reading is Magic Festival continues in its commitment to inclusion and accessibility with a programme packed with best-sellers and award-winners from across the world.
That every child has the right to read for the joy of it is woven into the fabric of the Reading Is Magic Festival which will once more be broadcast for free into homes and schools across the UK and globally. Reading for pleasure isn't just a 'nice thing', it's vital. Research going back to 2002 suggests that reading for pleasure is one of the two key indicators in a child's later economic success, irrespective of what background they are from.”
The partnership of festivals and programmers is made up of Bath Children’s Literature Festival, Toronto International Festival of Authors, Bocas Lit Fest, Flip Through Flanders, Wigtown Book Festival and the Black British Book Festival.
For the full programme and to sign up to the event newsletter, visit the Reading is Magic Festival website.
