LoveReading4Kids at The Week Junior Book Festival

By Charlotte Carus | 2nd November 2023

Last week the LoveReading4Kids team escaped the office, and the world of online retailing, for a chance to put books straight into the hands of young bookworms.

Hot on the heels of their inaugural - and super-successful - Book Awards, The Week Junior hosted a sell-out one day festival with a star studded line-up of children's authors. As official retailer of the Awards and big fan of the brand, LoveReading4Kids was invited to run the festival bookshop and we jumped at the chance.

Held at the prestigious Royal Institution in Mayfair, London, the day was a joyous and exciting celebration of storytelling and the shared love of reading. Young festival goers were invited to immersive workshops and imaginative author performances, designed to inspire creativity and build confident writers.

The day began with a thrilling journey through The Secret of the Blood Red Key, the sensational sequel to David Farr's acclaimed debut The Book of Stolen Dreams. One of the UK's leading directors of theatre and film, David Farr was joined by children's book legend Michael Morpurgo in an enthralling exploration of the art of storytelling from stage and page. Jenny Pearson followed with an entertaining look at her latest novel The Boy Who Made Monsters and author of the Lizzie and Belle Mysteries, JT Williams, took the audience through stories of black heroes and heroines throughout history. And then, to great excitement, Michael Rosen wowed with a spellbinding poetry performance. Throughout the day there were interactive workshops on offer from Christopher Edge, Serena Patel, Jodie Garnish, Eve McDonnell and comic The Brothers McLeod.

Many of the authors were available for book signings, with queues snaking through the elegant Georgian corridors and ornate assembly rooms of the Royal Institution. Busy from the moment the festival opened, our bookshop was piled high with the most recent books from all of the authors appearing at the festival, including Michael Morpurgo's glorious Tales from Shakespeare, the latest in Serena Patel's hilarious Anisha, Accidental Detective series Beach Disaster and hot-off-the-press The Brothers McLeod's Knight Sir Louis and the Sinister Snowball.

With every book purchase made through LoveReading4Kids, 25% of the cover price is given to a school for them to buy more books. This meant that not only did we have brilliant fun running the book stall, through the sales on the day £1000 was contributed to the LoveReading4Kids Funding for Schools Scheme!

If you would like to know more about our funding scheme or would like to apply for funds you can find out more here. And don't forget, with every book bought on LoveReading4Kids or LoveReading, you can raise money for a school close to your heart to buy more books and help gift the love and benefit of reading to all young people.

Find a selection of the books from the authors appearing at The Week Junior Book Festival below - and don't miss next year's event. We highly recommend it!