Children’s Books Centre Stage: Introducing Scribblers Festival

There are so many wonderful children’s events throughout the year that it’s often hard to keep up. The annual writer’s festivals in most capital cities always include a great line up of children’s authors and family days but more often we are seeing children’s writer’s festivals emerging.

Earlier in the year we reported on Kids Book Fest in Melbourne, run by the wonderful people behind The Little Book Room and now we’d like to let you know about the fabulous Scribblers Festival in WA that successfully launched in May this year and will run again in 2019.

After coming together to develop Perth Festival’s Writer’s Week, Festival Director, Katherine Dorrington, and Festival Manager, Maria Alessandrino, have taken their passion for children’s literature and created Scribblers Festival. Between them both there are a combined 20+ years of Festival programming and children’s book publishing experience so they are well qualified to create a festival that revels in celebrating stories for children and young adults.

“We believe there’s something magical about children’s literature, and the way favourite books stay in our memories long after we’ve grown up.” says Katherine Dorrington

The 2019 line up of guest authors includes an impressive line-up – Jacqueline Harvey, Eddie Woo, Alison Lester, Matt Stanton, Neal Shusterman, Megan McDonald and many more.

 Here is what you need to know about Scribblers Festival:

What is Scribblers?

Scribblers is an annual writer’s festival for children, held at Scribblers Headquarters The Goods Shed in Claremont, WA. It is funded by cultural non-profit FORM (find out more about FORM here) and the Town of Claremont. There is a schools’ program – you can see the 2019 program here (link) and a family program that will be released early next year.

Why was it created?

Developed as a public celebration of FORM’s Creative Learning program, the objective of the festival is to instil the importance of books and creativity in children’s lives, as tools to help them thrive in, understand, and communicate with the world around them. Click here to see more on the inaugural Festival in May.

When can I go?

The 2019 Scribblers Festival will be held 8-12 of May. Stay tuned for more updates, and mini events happening throughout the year. There are schools’ programs and you can see the details here, but there will also be events that families can attend so sign up for the newsletter for information about who, what and where.

If you’re after more details visit the website here where you’ll find the recently released schools’ program – the family program will be released early next year. There’s also information on a variety of events that are held throughout the year, along with competitions and a variety of other resources and useful information.

These events are a wonderful way for kids to meet their favourite authors and find out about new books to read, so if you’re local or visiting Perth in May 2019 make sure you drop by to celebrate books and stories with your kids.