Mount Litera School International hosted a successful Bookaroo Children’s Literature Festival

The festival to welcome popular children’s authors to enthrall children 

Welcoming Kids at Bookaroo, the festival specially curated for 4 to 14 years old with sessions for every age at every hour hosted at Mount Litera School International (MLSI)- one of Mumbai’s leading IB schools

Mount Litera School International (MLSI)- one of Mumbai’s leading IB schools, hosted the first ever Mumbai edition of Bookaroo- India’s first children’s literature festival. The festival took place on 24- 25 February 2018 at the premises of MLSI- Bandra-Kurla Complex from 11AM to 04:30PM.

The festival has won the prestigious London Book Fair International Excellence Award for Literary Festival in 2017. Since its inception in 2008, Bookaroo has visited nine cities and has held 26 editions in the last 10 years.  This year in Mumbai, the festival welcomed over 20 well-established authors, illustrators, poets, and storytellers to unveil their magic. A true champion in bringing stories alive through storytelling, dramatized reading, workshops, art and craft, the Festival aimed to encourage freedom of thought in young minds thereby promoting a love for literature. Welcoming children as book lovers, the festival was specially curated for 4 to 14-year-olds with sessions for every age at every hour.

Navyata Goenka, Advisor, MLSI said, “As partners for Bookaroo 2018, we are proud to be facilitating a mélange of celebrated minds, diverse perspectives, and heightened cultural experiences which are bound to stoke the love for literature in young minds. It is heartening that the ethos of the Festival resembles with our core identity of evolving our children into ‘Being Future Ready’. It was great to see the children’s infectious energies and they completely charged the Festival’s atmosphere with their vigor.”

Thanks to book lovers and supporters in the book world, BOOKAROO has grown from strength to strength over the years

Swati Roy, festival director, Bookaroo said, “It was very exciting to bring Bookaroo to Mumbai for the first time. We are glad that the children had a wonderful time with the authors, illustrators, and storytellers. It has been a pleasure to be associated with MLSI, a school that gives reading the importance it deserves. We are happy that MLSI has thrown open its doors and shares Bookaroo’s vision and passion for bringing children and books together. We look forward to a lasting association.”

Boookaroo Mumbai featured a spectacular line-up of speakers with more than 50 sessions to look forward to.  Additionally, there were exciting sessions on wildlife, environment, make your own Patua painting and safari tales.

Here is a snapshot of what happened on the basis of the Theme, Personality and its detailed description

• Poetry, songs, and stories

1. John Dougherty: John Dougherty, the Irish Poet, singer and song-writer enthralled children with his musical performance and humorous books.
2. Kala Ramesh: Dance a poem with Kala Ramesh, the well-known exponent of Haiku – or short form of Japanese poetry - in India

• The Maharashtra factor

1. Ajay Dasgupta: Ajay Dasgupta’s bag of stories set the stage on fire with rousing performances in Marathi, Hindi, and English
2. Mumbai Mania Sights and sounds of Mumbai in color and black and white. A colorful patchwork curtain in a day-long session
3. Leah Verghese, Suman Chitrakar: The Duo brought to life the electrifying story of Savitribai Phule, a trailblazing social reformer, and poet

• Fun with art and illustrations

1. Priya Kuriyan, Savio Mascarenhas Battle of the Brushes, a showdown between 2 artists – Priya Kuriyan from Kochi and Savio Mascarenhas from Amar Chitra Katha, Mumbai - as they painted and sketched for their lives while an unknown story was read to them
2. Kavita Merchant: She brings to life characters from stories through clay modeling. All ages get a chance to try their hand with different levels of detailing for their respective ages

• On stage and behind it

1. Kailash Waghmare :  Actor and singer Kailash Waghmare with Qissebaazi- a bilingual dramatized storytelling session.
2. Champa Saha: She presented a power-packed tour of the world of theatre. Taught about actors’ shivers, stage fright, script blunders and directors’ blues

• Visual Art

1. Ashwathy P.S. Chennai-based artist Ashwathy P.S. created tactile scroll based on the book, One Dark Cloud. In a day-long session, children picked out shapes, textures, and colors that brought an Indian monsoon to life – a dark cloud, that first translucent raindrop, crunchy samosas, a steaming cup of tea

Eminent personalities with distinguished themes have enthralled the kids at Bookaroo Litfest with series of workshops on storytelling, craft and a doodle wall to let the child’s imagination take flight! 

Mount Litera School International (MLSI), one of the leading international schools in Mumbai located in Bandra Kurla Complex offers future-ready learning experiences through the IB Methodology for children from playgroup onwards. MLSI’s mission is to ensure that all students achieve the highest academic standards of which they are capable while being prepared to take their place as world citizens. MLSI believes that the DNA of a child’s education depends on a synergy between three key stakeholders: students, teachers, and parents. At MLSI, students acquire knowledge through a dynamic learning process integrating research, inquiry, and collaboration, as opposed to traditional methods of memorization and rote learning. Arts, Music, Drama, Sports and other extracurricular activities are assimilated into the program in a completely safe and nurturing environment. Together, these factors coalesce into a holistic learning experience that shapes students into balanced citizens of tomorrow.

Organised by Bookaroo Trust, Bookaroo is India’s first children’s literature festival, began in 2008 in New Delhi. The festival runs two programmes: BOOKAROO in the City, outreach programmes preceding the main festival, in which book-related activities are conducted in schools across the city and the main festival that is held over the weekend. 

Thanks to book lovers and supporters in the book world, BOOKAROO has grown from strength to strength over the years. The festival has visited nine cities and has held 26 editions in the last 10 years. The festival includes workshops as well as storytelling, craft and a doodle wall to let the child’s imagination take flight! Bookaroo has, so far, been held in New Delhi, Srinagar, Pune, Goa, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Kuching (Malaysia).