How time flies! Bookaroo, your favourite literature festival, is all set to enter its fifth year with a bang. This year’s edition has a grand line-up of writers, illustrators and storytellers you will love meeting. We have invited more than 70 well-known speakers from all over the world - and India - to come and celebrate books and literature with you.


It is going to be a packed programme on November 24th and 25th 2012. Don’t let anything stop you from being there at Sanskriti Kendra, Anand Gram on the Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road. Check in at 10:30 AM for six hours of pure fun.

Children (and we mean their families too), come over, meet and chat with your favourite authors, take part in workshops, listen to enthralling stories from all over the world or just craft your way through the day. It is all there.

  • Nadia Budde

    Nadia Budde has won many awards in Germany for her books. Her individual style weaves words and pictures so inextricably that they wind their way together through the pages.

  • Mariam Karim-Ahlawat

    Mariam Karim-Ahlawat is a university lecturer, writes books, runs creative writing workshops and designs multimedia for children.

  • Anjali Raghbeer

    Anjali Raghbeer writes film scripts and children's books. She loves conducting workshops that introduce youngsters to the world of art.

  • Aabid Surti

    Aabid Surti’s body of work spans fiction, non-fiction, travelogues and children’s literature. He is also an accomplished cartoonist, screenwriter and painter.

  • Niveditha Subramaniam

    Niveditha Subramaniam is excited by the possibilities of picture books and comics, and enjoys photography and illustration. She has worked as a creative writer and is currently an associate editor with Tulika Books.

  • Shweta Mohapatra

    Shweta Mohapatra is an illustrator and designer. A graduate of the National Institute of Design, she runs her design studio in Delhi.

  • Khyrunnisa A

    Khyrunnisa A is a full time writer, prize-winning author for children’s fiction and creator of popular comic character Butterfingers.

  • Kirsty Murray

    Kirsty Murray is an award-winning Australian author whose most recent novel is based on the amazing true story of a theatrical troupe of Australian children that toured India in 1910.

  • Simi Srivastava

    Simi Srivastava is a soft-skills, life-skills trainer and a performing artiste. She is professionally trained in theatre, creative music and movement, miming, puppetry and uses all these to narrate stories.Simi Srivastava is a soft-skills, life-skills trainer and a performing artiste. She is professionally trained in theatre, creative music and movement, miming, puppetry and uses all these to narrate stories.

  • Kartik Sharma

    Kartik Sharma is like a magician conducting many kinds of exciting and creative activity workshops with children through crafts and impromptu performances.

  • Atanu Roy

    Atanu Roy illustrates and designs picture books, magazines and educational aids. His forte is changing his styles and adding a whacky humour to the narrative.

  • Sowmya Rajendran

    Sowmya Rajendran enjoys writing for children and believes in creating work that encourages them to think from multiple perspectives. Associate Editor with Chandamama magazine previously, Sowmya has also written children’s books for the digital medium.

  • Suddhasattwa Basu

    Suddhasattwa Basu is a painter, illustrator and animation filmmaker who created the first Indian animated serial for television.

  • Rosemarie Somaiah

    Rosemarie Somaiah, author, educator and Singapore-based storyteller runs Asian Storytelling Network and enjoys working with all ages and all forms of story.

  • Campfire

    Campfire is a graphic novel publisher creating books for the young and young at heart, driven by the aim of putting the fun back into reading.

  • Anita Roy

    Anita Roy is a commissioning editor with Young Zubaan. She is also a writer and critic whose works have appeared in publications in India and abroad.

  • CFSI

    CFSI (Children’s Film Society India) is committed to strengthening the children's film movement within India and promoting Indian children's films across the globe.

  • Natasha Sharma

    Natasha Sharma is a writer and illustrator. She marketed watches, coffee and pizzas before finding her way into the wonderful world of children's literature.

  • Ranjit Lal

    Ranjit Lal is a writer and a keen ornithologist. He has written fiction and non-fiction for both adults and children.

  • Jitendra Thakur

    Jitendra Thakur is a young artist who loves to paint for children. He has participated in many national and international exhibitions.

  • Geeta Ramanujam

    Geeta Ramanujam, a renowned storyteller, is the founder of Kathalaya and the Academy of Storytelling, the only globally recognized academy for Storytelling. An Ashoka Fellow, she has performed all over the world.

  • Valentina Trivedi

    Valentina Trivedi has been a filmmaker, screenwriter, copywriter and teacher of English. She is also a trained singer.

  • Ajanta Guhathakurta

    Ajanta Guhathakurta Das worked as an art director at Penguin India before becoming a full-time illustrator for children’s books and a painter in 2012.

  • Ruskin Bond

    Ruskin Bond's wise and humorous books are like good friends for children. He won his first award at the age of 17.

  • Ashok Chakradhar

    Ashok Chakradhar specialises in satire. A former professor at Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia University, this well-known poet has been associated with radio and TV, scripting a number of plays, satire and poems for children.

  • Vijaylakshmi Nagaraj

    Vijaylakshmi Nagaraj is an educational consultant, author, storyteller and social worker. She particularly enjoys telling stories in rural areas, hospitals and to children in trauma, using puppets made from eco-friendly materials.

  • Fleur Hitchcock

    Fleur Hitchcock works, between parenting and writing, with her husband, a toymaker, looks after other people's gardens and grows vegetables.

  • Aniruddha Sen Gupta

    Aniruddha Sen Gupta wrote his first story when he was 10. Three decades later, he is back to writing adventure stories - and developing games. Annie, as his friends call him, lives in Goa with six looney dogs and one looney wife.

  • Payal Kapadia

    Payal Kapadia is a former journalist turned writer who loves to interact with children and make them laugh.

  • Kamlesh Mohindra

    Kamlesh Mohindra - an educationist and writer – has quite a few award winning stories and has written mystery fiction and short story collections for children.

  • Anupa Lal

    Anupa Lal has written more than 20 books for children, but she enjoys telling stories much more than writing them.

  • Himanjali Sankar

    Himanjali Sankar is a children's writer and editor (definitely), a deep sea diver (very recently certified) and a mathematician (not at all). She lives in New Delhi with her husband, two daughters and a labrador.

  • Louise-Marie Cumont

    Louise-Marie Cumont is a sculptor. She made and stitched her first cloth books for her son. Her books are unique and deal with the major questions in life in a seemingly simple but universal way.

  • Tadpole Repertory

    Tadpole Repertory is dedicated to presenting original writing and devised text performances on subjects that are relevant and compelling to audiences today.

  • Garima Gupta

    Garima Gupta is an artist and illustrator. She works out of her workshop and observatory in New Delhi.

  • Duckbill

    Duckbill is a publisher of exciting and funny books for children and young adults. Their books contain monsters, aliens, pumpkins, zombies and even humans

  • Terry O’Brien

    Terry O’Brien is an academic by profession and a passionate quiz enthusiast and prolific writer by vocation. His mission is to ignite a quizzing instinct and an aptitude to develop the 3R’s of learning - Read, Record, Recall.

  • Sulaiman Ahmad

    Sulaiman Ahmad, a former banker with a master’s degree in English literature and a classical education in Urdu-Persian, is a closet poet and writer, who turned more actively to literary pursuits recently.

  • Arefa Tehsin

    Playing with snakes, exploring unknown caves and treading jungles has always delighted Arefa as much as penning down words. Honorary Wildlife Warden of Udaipur and a non-conformist, Arefa is a reading, travel and wildlife enthusiast.

  • Devika Rangachari

    Devika Rangachari is a children's writer with a very closely guarded secret - her love for chocolate! In between she is working on post-doctoral research in ancient Indian history.

  • Paro Anand

    Paro Anand is an award-winning author of children's books for all ages and a storyteller par excellence.

  • Chittaranjan Nayak

    Chittaranjan Nayak has choreographed many musical extravaganzas for various schools in different parts of India. He is professionally trained in Indian classical, modern jazz, contemporary, Latin and ballroom dance forms.

  • Ulf Stark

    Ulf Stark has been twice nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen award. He is an internationally celebrated Swedish author of over 30 books translated into more than 25 languages.

  • Marcia Williams

    Marcia Williams has written and illustrated numerous books, many of which are retellings of classic stories, in her distinctive cartoon-strip style.

  • Prayag Shukla

    Prayag Shukla, a Sahitya Akademi award winner, is a well-known poet, art critic, editor and author of books of Hindi fiction for adults and children.

  • Sampurna Chattarji

    Sampurna Chattarji is a poet, novelist and translator. Her published titles include two novels and two poetry collections for adults, and several books for children.

  • Vandana Bist

    Vandana Bist who graduated from the College of Art, Delhi, writes and illustrates books. She has won the Noma award from Japan and the Katha award.

  • Penny Dolan

    Penny Dolan not only writes for children but is also a storyteller and playwright. She has performed in libraries, museums, art galleries and historic sites. She has appeared in several children's programmes at literature festivals.

  • Manas R Mahapatra

    Manas R Mahapatra heads the National Centre for Children's Literature division of National Book Trust. He is also an educational activist, editor, poet and writer for both children and adults.

  • RamG Vallath

    RamG was amazed to be born in a world without interstellar travel. He tried to correct the situation by completing a BTech from IIT Chennai. Failing to invent an interstellar drive, RamG jumped into the rat race. Later, good sense prevailed and he became an author.

  • Nina Sabnani

    Nina Sabnani is an animation director and illustrator passionate about storytelling. Her film Tanko Bole Chhe (The Stitches Speak) about migration and memories of the earthquake in Kutch has won several awards. Currently, she is an Associate Professor at the Industrial Design Centre, IIT Bombay.

  • Roopa Pai

    Roopa Pai is an award-winning author of children's books and writes stories, poems, comic strips and a popular history column for children.

  • Neeraj Jain

    Neeraj Jain is a professional and a volunteer with ITIHAAS. He has also served as a member of ITIHAAS' Advisory Council. He has a vast reservoir of stories to share and an engaging style of telling them too.

  • Ankit Chadha

    Ankit Chadha is a writer, storyteller and TED speaker on Dastangoi. Apart from performing and conducting workshops for children and adults, he is a guest columnist for art, culture, literature, history and entertainment publications.

  • Ovidia Yu

    Ovidia Yu is based in Singapore. She is an award-winning novelist, short-story writer and playwright. Her plays have been performed locally and abroad. The Mudskipper has won the Scholastic Asian Book Award.

  • Michael Heyman

    Michael Heyman is a Professor of Nonsense at Berklee College of Music. He is wanted in thirteen-and-a-half countries for editing and writing books that make no sense.

  • Petr Horacek

    Petr Horacek trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague before becoming a graphic designer, illustrator and painter. Born in The Czech Republic, Petr now lives in the UK with his wife and two daughters. He was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal this year.

  • Suvidha Mistry

    Suvidha Mistry worked first as a graphic designer in media and advertising, then as a teacher. Now she is living her dream as an illustrator of children's books.

  • Leila Seth

    Leila Seth is a former Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh and a member of the Law Commission of India. Her book, We the Children of India, came from her belief that it is never too early for young people to learn about the Constitution.

  • Mala Kumar

    Mala Kumar is a journalist, author and editor. She loves playing with children and words, preferably together.

  • Samina Mishra

    Samina Mishra juggles roles as a writer, sound recordist and documentary filmmaker. She writes children's books and has conducted numerous workshops in Delhi and elsewhere.

  • Priya Kuriyan

    Priya Kuriyan is an illustrator and animation film designer whose forte is the visual art of story telling.

  • Hodder Children’s Books

    Hodder Children’s Books has an excellent track record in creating bestselling and award winning books for children of all ages and interests - from timeless picture books to classic novels to explosive teen fiction.

  • Shabnam Minwalla

    Shabnam Minwalla was a journalist with the Times of India but now has the even more brain-scrambling job of being a mother of three. When time permits, she dons her writer's hat!

  • Premola Ghose

    Premola Ghose is a self-taught artist who has been painting and exhibiting for several years. Her illustrations have appeared in several books.

  • Indu Harikumar

    Indu Harikumar is a children's writer, illustrator and craft teacher. She enjoys tinkering with everyday objects that find their way into the dustbin and create art around it. She loves pushing the boundaries of books.

  • Asha Nehemiah

    Asha Nehemiah is an established writer for children of all ages. Many of her books have been translated into several Indian languages.

  • Wendy Cooling

    Wendy Cooling has been involved in a range of projects to promote reading not only in the UK but also worldwide. A true Book Dabbler!

  • Payal Dhar

    Payal Dhar is an author and freelance writer. She’s written five books for young people—the newest one being There’s a Ghost in My PC. She also writes on computers and technology, books and reading, games and other fun stuff.

  • Atiya Zaidi

    Atiya Zaidi publisher at Ratna Sagar, specializes in content creation for schools. The content she has developed is now used in leading schools across the country.

  • Kala Ramesh

    Kala Ramesh was bitten by the haiku bug in 2005. Her haiku, tanka, senryu, haibun and renku have appeared in leading e-zines and anthologies all over the world.

  • Vinita Zutshi

    Vinita Zutshi, an exciting storyteller, is the creator and writer of Carefree Parenting. She is a parent, a writer and lots of other things.

  • Fouzia

    Fouzia is a lecturer by profession. She is the first woman Dastango of modern times and has been working towards integrating storytelling with education.

  • Deepa Agarwal

    Deepa Agarwal has written more than 40 books for children. She tirelessly promotes children's books and has received several prestigious awards for her writing.

  • Usha Venkatraman

    Usha Venkatraman trained as a teacher but began experimenting with puppets and developed her unique style of storytelling using all kinds of puppets. Usha has a tale for all seasons.

  • Jerry Pinto

    Jerry Pinto is a journalist and poet who enjoys both writing and doing interactive sessions with children.

  • Swati Sodhi

    Swati Sodhi’s creative workshops use storytelling, crafts, quizzes, word games, theatre, music and dance to introduce children to books and reading.

  • Andrew Hoffland

    Andrew Hoffland Uncle Andy, as he is usually called, has been singing and acting since he was 7+. A teacher for 20 years, he now enjoys working with children, training them for speech and elocution, choirs and school performances

  • Shamim Padamsee

    Shamim Padamsee is a writer who has been through several avatars in her life. Her latest venture is a website reserved exclusively for reviewing Indian books for children. Her credo is Read India, Love India.

  • Manisha Chaudhry

    Manisha Chaudhry is an editor, translator and author. She loves music, books and long walks in the mountains with children for company.

  • Savi Sarin

    Weave a Tale’s Savi Sarin has had a varied career as a teacher, storyteller, performing artist and writer. But having discovered the power – and fun - of storytelling, she now enchants listeners of all ages.

  • Anushka Ravishankar

    Anushka Ravishankar has written several books for children, many of which are in verse.

  • Random House India

    Random House India is committed to promoting the love of reading through both contemporary fiction and the classics, which bring timeless favourites to a whole new generation.

  • Parnab Mukherjee

    Parnab Mukherjee is an independent media analyst, performance consultant and leading alternative theatre director whose work often showcases human rights issues.

  • Sigrun Srivastav

    Sigrun Srivastav is a writer, artist and sculptor whose dramatic and powerful stories are popular with children.

  • Bikram Ghosh

    Bikram Ghosh, actor, company manager and ‘drill sergeant’ is associated with Tadpole Repertory, a collective of theatre practitioners, committed to producing and promoting new and inventive work in New Delhi.

  • Grant S. Clark

    Grant S. Clark writes about primates (the human kind) jumping on each other and chasing balls in his job as a sports journalist.

  • Dheeba Nazir

    Dheeba Nazir is a teacher by profession but a writer at heart. She believes in the power of words and hopes that through her poems and stories she will reach out to others.

  • Giti Chandra

    Giti Chandra is associate professor at St Stephen's College. Her debut children's novel The Fang of Summoning is the first of the Book of Guardians Trilogy. Dr Chandra is a trained soprano, violinist and choral conductor.

  • Amar Chitra Katha

    Amar Chitra Katha was founded in 1967 by Anant Pai to familiarise children with stories from Indian mythology, history, literature and folklore. Its books have been translated into 38 Indian and foreign languages.

  • Bulbul Sharma

    Bulbul Sharma is an artist and writer. She also works as an art teacher for children with special needs.

  • Ajit Narayan

    Ajit Narayan is a freelance professional cartoonist, illustrator and workshop consultant based in Delhi with over 20 years of experience.

  • Flavour of Art Foundation

    Flavour of Art Foundation was set up in 2011 by alumni of the Delhi College of Art. Its mission is to unlock the creativity in everyone, regardless of age, gender or profession.

  • Maria J Denjongpa

    Maria J Denjongpa is an American who shares her passion for reading aloud with her students at Taktse International School in Sikkim. Miss Lee and the Mosquito is the first of a series of stories set in Sikkim.

  • Frané Lessac

    Frané Lessac was born in the US, lived in Montserrat and the UK before moving to Australia. Having numbered a monkey and snakes amongst her pets, she toyed with becoming a vet but opted for film school instead and is an artist, author and illustrator of more than 35 books.

  • Nov 25, 1:30 pm for ages 10-12
    Create your own graphic novel with Jerry Pinto and Garima Gupta complete with your own crow which you can fold/caw/fly/flap/yap.

    Jerry Pinto is a journalist and poet who enjoys both writing and doing interactive sessions with children. Garima Gupta is an artist and illustrator who works out of her workshop and observatory in New Delhi.
  • Nov 24, 4:00 pm for ages 6-8
    Spend some rollicking moments with Monsters, Songsters and Much Such Madness as AnushkaRavishankar takes stage.

    AnushkaRavishankar has written more than 25 books for children, many published internationally and several winning international awards. She has participated in many publishing events and conferences, including Les Belles Etrangeres in France, the Children’s Book Tour in the UK, AFCC Singapore and Jumpstart and Bookaroo. She is currently director and principal platypus, Duckbill Books.
  • Nov 13, 2012
    Bookaroo in the City's Deepavali break ends on November 18th. Coming up on November 19th are events in nine destinations.
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Bookaroo 2012 SCHEDULE:
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